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BY THE AUTHOR OF THIS VOLUME. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, 

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THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 



ON 



PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 




BY 

REV. J. B. GROSS, 

AUTHOR OF " THE HEATHEN RELIGION IN ITS POPULAR AND SYMBOLICAL DEVELOP- 
MENT;" OF " THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, AS SET FORTH IN THK BOOK 
OF CONCORD, CRITICALLY EXAMINED AND ITS FALLACY DEMONSTRATED;" 
OF "THE TEACHINGS OF PROVIDENCE, OR NEW LESSONS ON OLD SUB- 
JECTS ;" OF " THE PARSON ON DANCING, AS IT IS TAUGHT IN THE 
BIBLE, AND WAS PRACTICED AMONG THE ANCIENT GREEKS 
AND ROMANS;" OF "THOUGHTS FOR THE FIRESIDE AND 
THE SCHOOL;" OF "THOUGHTS FOR THE FIRESIDE 
AND THE SCHOOL, SECOND SERIES;" OF "OLD 
FAITH AND NEW THOUGHTS," &C, &C. 



" If a man die, shall he live again ?" — Job, xiv. 14. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

188 2. 

err 






Copyright, 1881, by Rev. J. B. Gross. 




DEDICATION. 



If there are any persons, who take a profound interest in a 
future life, and are willing to allow some weight to purely 
logical arguments in proof of it ; if, again, there are any 
persons, whose souls cannot contemplate the dread idea of 
annihilation without a shudder; and if, finally, there are any 
persons, who consider that — by its inherent capacities, the 
human mind is not only competent to attain, more or less 
clearly, to the conception and belief of a future life, but that 
the history of all barbarous and civilized peoples, proves that 
heathens are, by no means, left a prey to doubts and anxieties 
on a subject of paramount importance to the enjoyment of a 
tranquil and happy life, to them, the following pages are 
respectfully inscribed by their friend, 

THE AUTHOR. 



1* 



PKEFACE. 



According to orthodox creeds and a commonly 
entertained prejudice, the vastly greater part of 
mankind, have never been blessed with what is 
technically termed a Revelation, and it is, hence, 
generally believed that the heathens : the peoples 
who are unprovided with a supernatural revela- 
tion, can know nothing that is reliable of a 
future life, and that, accordingly, they must 
either pine in dreary hopelessness, or fret in 
blank despair! Such — I am bold to say, is far 
from being the case. For the heathens possess a 
source of knowledge inherent in human nature, 
which — in a manner similar to the revelation 
claimed for the Bible, is designed at once to 
guide our present, and to foreshadow: if not 
actually demonstrate, our future life. 

It would not only be exceedingly strange, but 
appear as an irreconcilable trait in the Divine 
character, if the Creator had doomed innumer- 

7 



8 PREFACE. 

able multitudes of heathens — all too his children, 
to grovel in the dark on this subject so pre-emi- 
nently essential to the fundamental conditions of 
a consistent and harmonious human destiny, and 
left at last to die, like the beasts, without aspira- 
tion or fond expectation of a continuous con- 
scious existence beyond the grave! No, no; 
instead of so disheartening and appalling a fate, 
the heathen, though not supernaturally taught, 
yet has a comfortable hope : anticipating a higher 
destiny and an ever progressive life ! How far I 
shall be able to verify and illustrate this view of 
the subject — at once so gratifying and encourag- 
ing, the sequel must show, when ample proof 
will be adduced that God — in the sensible lan- 
guage of the Apostle, is the God " also of the 
Gentiles," not only caring for them generally, 
but vouchsafing to impart to their souls that 
child-like trust, which can be derived only from 
a greater or less certainty of a predestination to 
an heirship of everlasting life ! 

In the 2 Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy, the 
apostle writes that Christ " hath brought life and 
immortality to light" : an assertion which — taken 
literally, seems to imply that mankind — without 
Gospel-influences, cannot acquire a proper idea 



PREFACE. 9 

of a future life. If such is the meaning, it is 
clearly and emphatically erroneous. I will char- 
itably assume, therefore, that the sacred writer 
simply means to exalt the merits of the Savior 
in behoof of this important doctrine, and thus 
to postulate the greater certainty and, therefore, 
the greater cogency of his mode of inculcating 
the belief in a future life, compared with that 
which grounds the belief in immortality on 
purely logical inferences, or on principles, which 
are the natural and unaided outgrowths of the 
soul ! 

Wilkes-Barre, Pa., October, 1881. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

The Dread of Annihilation among Mankind is Instinctive, and, 
hence, Foreshadowing of a Future Life 13 

CHAPTER II. 

The Tender Relations, existing among Men, seem to warrant the 
Prognostication of a Future Life, and a Reunion of Friends... 18 

CHAPTER III. 

Can God do any Thing in Vain ? Or, how can the Death of the 
Greater Part of Mankind be explained ? — Death in Fetal Life; 
in Early Life; in Mature Life 24 

CHAPTER IV. 

A Future Life, inferred from Analogies in the Present 32 

CHAPTER V. 

The Apparent Occasional Suspensions of Rewards and Punish- 
ments in the Present Life, seem to warrant the Inference that 
there will be Adequate Recompense hereafter, and that, there- 
fore, there will be a Future Life 38 

CHAPTER VI. 
"Why is Man here at all, if he is not to exist hereafter? 45 

CHAPTER VII. 

If there is no Future Life, how are Mourners of the Dead to be 
comforted? 51 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Heritable or Commemorative Immortality 57 

11 



12 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

PAGE 

If there is no Future Life, the Human Race must finally become 
extinct 63 

CHAPTER X. 
Our Morals, considered in Relation to a Future Life 70 

CHAPTER XI. 
Is it a Proper Function of Reason to inquire into the Probabili- 
ties of a Future Life ? 77 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Belief in Ghosts or Apparitions being Universal, seems to 
warrant the Inference of a Future Life 84 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Immortality of the Soul, as taught among the Heathens 91 

PARAGRAPH I. 

The Immortality of the Soul, as taught in the Brahminism of 
the Hindoos 91 

PARAGRAPH II. 

The Belief in the Immortality of the Soul among the Ancient 
Persians 94 

PARAGRAPH III. 

The Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul, as taught among 
the Ancient Egyptians 99 

PARAGRAPH IV. 

The Belief of the Ancient Greeks in the Immortality of the Soul 104 

PARAGRAPH V. 

The Immortality of the Soul, as it was taught in the Obsequies 
of the Ancient Romans 110 

PARAGRAPH VI. 

The Ancient Scandinavians too believed in the Immortality of 
the Soul : 114 

PARAGRAPH VII. 

The Belief in the Immortality of the Soul, among the Indians or 
Aborigines of America 118 



THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY ON 
PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 



CHAPTEE I. 



The Dread of Annihilation among Mankind is Instinctive, 
and, hence, Foreshadowing of a Future Life. 

Our existence and activity, as organized be- 
ings, are possible only as long as we live. As 
soon, therefore, as life becomes extinct, we cease 
— as far as may be judged from appearances, to 
possess the proper characteristics of humanity ; 
for the bodily remains at death, are but its in- 
signia or habiliments, which speedily undergo 
decomposition, and are resolved into their pri- 
mordial elements, building up new structures, 
and becoming the basis, at once, of new organ- 
isms and of new functions. 

Such being decidedly the case, and death — 

seemingly at least, putting an end to our exist- 

2 13 



14 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

ence, considered as implying conscious, rational 
beings, it is no wonder : knowing how dear life 
is, that death should naturally — except perhaps 
among the rudest class of savages, be contem- 
plated with deep and abiding aversion, nay, even 
horror, as the forerunner of annihilation, or, at 
least, as an event accompanied by grievous 
doubts and misgivings. That life, under such 
repellent circumstances, should be clung to with 
eager tenacity, is not surprising, on the contrary, 
it would be surprising indeed, if such was not 
the case, at least among a great part of man- 
kind, distinguished for sober and reflecting casts 
of mind. 

Life is proverbially eminently sweet and pre- 
cious, as it is the absolute condition under which 
all that is valuable or agreeable on earth, can be 
attained. Deprived of it, we are no longer — at 
least as far as can be judged of us as terrestrial 
phenomena or entities, in the category of per- 
cipient, sentient, and rational beings, and the 
varied drama of earth is, therefore, for ever 
closed to us ! It is true, the suicide anticipates 
the inevitable dissolution which awaits him, but 
it is not always, probably seldom, that in laying 
violent hands on himself, he aims to hasten his 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 15 

admission either to future life, or future enjoy- 
ment. On the contrary, it is to be presumed 
on well-established experimental grounds, that 
the majority of suicides are the consequence of 
melancholy, insanity, or other morbid and ab- 
normal state of the mind. A fact, which should 
induce people to judge leniently — instead of 
harshly, as is usually the case, of such un- 
happy beings, whose nature we share, and who : 
sooner or later, may be overtaken by a similar 
calamity ! 

The opinion, expressed above, that man in 
his rudest state of development, is not likely 
to have any fear of death, or dread of anni- 
hilation, is based upon the grossly sensuous and 
groveling state of infant man, when he seldom 
feels regret for the past or anxiety for the 
future : he is yet too much of the earth, and, 
therefore, earthly, to think much or at all, of a 
future life. The questions, engaging the at- 
tention of the philosopher, whence am I? and 
whither am I o;oin°;? never disturb or enlighten 
his embryo-intellect : he is satisfied, and, hence, 
not feeling any wants, craves no supply. God — 
having thus adapted his providential care to cir- 
cumstances, his wisdom and goodness are amply 



16 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

justified by the event : milk suffices babes ; adults 
need meat ! 

The thought — naturally intruding itself in the 
course of this disquisition, is that though the 
"lower animals/' seem to be destined only for 
the present world, and to be consequently insen- 
sible of the existence of a future state of being, 
yet that — in case man is not to live hereafter, 
their fate is far more enviable than his : they 
live contentedly and die without apprehension 
that death is a deprivation of life, or that anni- 
hilation may await them, while man is doomed 
to manifold trials and tribulations in the present 
life, and, at last, goes down to the grave mourn- 
ivg, if no glimpse of hope illumines or comforts 
his soul. Yea, I hold that of all creatures, man 
— dying without a reasonable anticipation, a 
well-founded hope, or— at least, a strong proba- 
bility of a life to come, is the most miserable 
and the most pitiable ! 

This deeply rooted antipathy to the idea of 
annihilation, is a marked concomitant of our 
race and, of course, implanted in the human 
breast by the Creator himself, for wise and be- 
neficent purposes. One may be to guard against 
too great an indifference to health and life, and, 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 17 

consequently, prompt an increased attention to 
self-preservation as well as: physical and mental 
wellbeing. But the salient object of this feeling 
seems, doubtless, to be not only anticipative but 
indicative, of the realization of a future life : 
what it urges us to seek, it is reasonable to 
think we shall attain, and not be abandoned to 
a dreaded and hateful reverse. Finally, let me 
add, that he is truly happy who can sincerely 
exclaim with the poet : 

" For me — I hold no commerce with despair!" 

— Dawes' Geraldine. 



2* 



18 THE BELIEF IN IMM0RTALI1Y 



CHAPTEE II. 

The Tender Kelations, existing among Men, seem to warrant 
the Prognostication of a Future Life, and a Reunion of 
Friends. 

There are relations in human life, which are 
more to be desired than even life itself — the re- 
lations of kindreds and friends. Every other 
social good, compared with them, appears to be 
mean or worthless. Thev — in fact, make earth 
an Eden, and the crosses of life bearable. It is, 
therefore, a pity, a shame, nay, often too a hei- 
nous sin, that these grand and precious relations : 
affording so many advantages for intellectual 
and moral improvement, are not always preserved 
inviolate. But it is well to bear in mind, that 
while the infraction of them is exceptional, their 
design is always noble, and their excellence re- 
mains unimpaired : " To err, is human !" 

I shall first call attention to the relation of 
kindred, or the connection of mankind by the 
ties of birth and affinity. — The situation of man 
in this happy position, is of correlative import, 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 19 

embracing, for example, husband and wife, parent 
and child, brother and sister, together with the 
kinsfolk, more or less affiliated to the family- 
institution. It is within this hallowed circle; 
this magic center of attraction between the dif- 
ferent members, claiming a common consan- 
guinity, where many of the most tender and 
affectionate emotions are fostered; where hu- 
manity — in its most lovely and winning traits, 
displays its greatest charms, and is likely to be 
most indefatigable in raising itself to a higher 
plane of its destiny; where instances of self- 
denial are most frequent ; where acts of mutual 
good will and a generous forbearance are often- 
est practiced; and where — in short, the conve- 
niences and pleasures of life, thus benignly pre- 
pared for us, and having their perennial source 
in the broad sympathy of a common kinship, are 
usually found to abound most as well as to en- 
dure longest. 

Let us expatiate a little further upon this fer- 
tile and interesting theme. Wife, husband, 
father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, 
nay, uncle too, and aunt, and cousin, &c. — close 
household- fraternizations, often extending widely 
in their ramifications, what charming and sig- 



20 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

nificant appellations ; what fond, yes, thrice 
beatific reminiscences do they call to mind ; what 
sacred duties; what holy joys, do they imply; to 
what lovely, cheerful scenes and incidents, do 
family-gatherings and festive entertainment give 
rise, within the limits of these important and 
divinely ordained coxrelations of society ; the in- 
cense too of pious hearts, ascending thence from 
the hallowed family-altar, denotes and inflames 
a common devotion, while the emphatic hearth- 
fires, fed by mutual diligence, warm, and sooth, 
and exalt the domestic affections! 

And now to think, that all this rare and abun- 
dant provision for a more speedy and effectual 
development of mankind : this potent family- 
nucleus, from which the dawn of civilization 
radiates, and through which humanity is bound 
in a closer and more intimate union, should for 
ever vanish out of sight at death, and all the 
signal instances of endearment and works of 
love, peculiar to the domestic institution both 
in its incipient and maturer stage • of growth, 
should, therefore, have been predestined not to 
survive the present life, during the flush and 
buoyancy of which, they constituted the pride 
and glory of man, and there be thus finally an 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 21 

end of both, surpasses comprehension, and — un- 
less it is taken for granted that God can do any 
thing in vain, must be repudiated both by the 
canons of logic and the dictates of common 
sense ! 

Finally, I am aware — it may be observed here, 
that according to IsTew-Testament teaching, the 
family-institution is not to survive its present, 
peculiar adaptation to the wants of human so- 
ciety, but it is hard, nay, impossible to suppose 
that God would introduce us to the most lovely 
and interesting phase of humanity, and thus 
open a source of happiness unequalled any- 
where else in the social relation, without destin- 
ing us to the enjoyment of at least similar and 
compensative blessings, in a future world. It 
would be — it seems, positively cruel — to speak, 
as St. Paul writes, " after the manner of man," 
in God, to open such an exuberant fountain of 
wellbeing in this life, merely to tantalize us in 
view of another ! But as certainly as God is 
wise and good, so certainly he cannot — the con- 
clusion seems irresistible, to finite and, be sure, 
erring man, give a foretaste of a fruition which 
he does not intend that we should realize ! 

Treating of friends, in the next place, it is well 



22 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

to bear in mind, that I mean by friends, intelli- 
gent and virtuous people, whose sentiments are 
congenial to our own, and whose society we, 
therefore, crave. Friends, in short, who sympa- 
thize with whatever is good and praiseworthy, 
and are, hence, prompt in furthering every noble 
aspiration of humanity ! It is clear that in the 
society of such choice representatives of our 
race, it must be pleasant, profitable, honorable, 
ay, unalloyed happiness, to have intimate com- 
munion. For our souls being congenial, and 
our thoughts and habits of life, similar, we are, 
hence, governed by the same exalted and useful 
principles, and, consequently, mutually thank 
God : " from whom is every good and perfect 
gift," that we have found homogeneous souls ; 
that the sphere of our virtuous pleasures is, of 
course, greatly enlarged; and our growth in the 
direction of a true destiny of man, vastly facili- 
tated. 

Such being the case, it evidently follows that 
— if there is no hereafter, this glorious friendship 
is delusive ; a " false pretense" ; a seeming only ; 
or — in other words, a promise without fulfill- 
ment ! Can God so trifle with the feelings and 
instinctive predilections of his children? Can 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 23 

he say yea, when he means nay ? If — under the 
circumstances, such a contradiction is to be 
deemed impossible, it is also to be deemed im- 
possible that the grave should close our career, 
and, at the same time, terminate all our most 
pleasant and hopeful surroundings. Is not God 
our father, but a father : a Divine father at least, 
cannot now indorse or commend gifts as eligible 
and precious, and, by-and-by, without apparent 
reason, consign them to oblivion, lu), he, at 
least, does not deal in shams, which raise expec- 
tations but to disappoint them. Hence I infer 
that our faith in a future life, is amply justified 
on simply rational principles, and should, there- 
fore, content us ! 

Whether the English poet includes kinship 
amofig the friendship of which he speaks below, 
is not quite clear : the probability is that he 
limits the term to no relation or condition in 
society. His rhythm, which moves smoothly, 
and his sentiments, which are noble, are thus 
expressed in the following couplet : 

11 Friendship above all ties does bind the heart, 
And faith in friendship is the noblest part." 

Lord Orrery. 



24 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 



CHAPTEE III. 

Can God do any Thing in Vain ? Or, how can the Death of 
the Greater Part of Mankind be explained? — Death in 
Fetal Life ; in Early Life ; in Mature Life. 

Death in Fetal Life. — It is notorious that 
death in the period of fetal life, is astonishingly 
frequent. Myriad lives are annually lost in this 
incipient stage of human existence, the bearers 
of which, therefore, never see the light of day. 
And this strange and — to all appearance, prema- 
ture mortality, happens very often quite inde- 
pendently of the vile and wicked arts, which are 
largely employed to procure abortion, either with 
the view of getting, rid of the care and expense 
of raising a family, or of effacing the evidence 
of a criminal and disgraceful commerce. For 
the virtuous and God-fearing parents, who es- 
teem matrimony a Divine institution, and the 
family cares a pleasure as well as a solemn duty, 
are, alas, likewise doomed to experience a simi- 
lar fatality in their nascent offspring, in spite of 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 25 

every precaution, which prudence makes neces- 
sary, or philoprogenitiveness dictates. 

It is hence evident that at least in all those 
cases of fetal mortality, which are not the result 
of willful interference with the sacred and ap- 
propriate offices of maternity, means are em- 
ployed by the Creator for the attainment of ends, 
which — as far as we can judge, are never realized 
in this world, and labor expended, which is not 
adequate to its intended results. These are 
weighty facts, full of abstruse problems, and 
there is onty one way of explaining them with- 
out implicating the wisdom of God : it is to own 
our incapacity to comprehend and properly to 
appreciate the nature and end of the seeming 
mystery. For God — it is certain, cannot : as an 
infinitely wise and, therefore, unerring being, do 
anything in vain, and, consequently, fetal mor- 
tality cannot be proof of vain labor, or, in other 
words, of a frustration of the Divine purpose. 
This purpose — underlying a phenomenon appa- 
rently so very faulty and strikingly indicative of 
a failure in design, is the provision — I doubt not, 
of a future life, and the introduction into it of 
the incipient humanities, whose untimely death 
has been the subject of this paragraph. 



26 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

If hence, I again observe, there is no future 
life, and, of course, no admission of the fetal 
decedents into a future life, then it inevitably 
follows that much labor has been bestowed in 
vain, and that between the Creator's plans and 
means, there is a sad, a woeful discrepancy ! I 
cannot see the necessity of resorting to so des- 
perate an alternative in the question at issue, 
and, hence, I am willing to believe, at least to 
hope, that this seeming enigma in human destiny, 
will, sooner or later, find its solution in a grand, 
concordant, and all-reconciling hereafter ! 

Death in Early Life. — Under this heading, are 
comprised that part of mankind, which is em- 
braced between the eras of birth and adult age. 
Within these limits, which — though ample, are 
yet clearly defined, the human organism is more 
thoroughly developed, while the relations of life 
are more diversified and endearing, than in the 
fetal period of existence. In this wombal stage, 
nascent humanitv is dumb : the sweet embraces 
of father and mother are unknown to it; thought 
is not yet evoked; and unconsciousness still pre- 
sides over a mass of animated matter, notwith- 
standing that it is most exquisitely moulded and 
anticvpatwely marvelously endowed by the Crea- 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 27 

tor. How different from the human being in 
early life, whose senses are active ; his brain re- 
flecting; his heart sensitive to kind or harsh im- 
pressions; his tastes for the amenities around 
him, marked; his social relations complicated 
and arduous, with hopes and fears alternately 
predominating ! 

This interesting period of life, may aptly be 
defined as the period of hope, joy, preparation, 
and the first fruits of a riper and more prolific 
age. Here too, the blossoms of beauty freely ex- 
pand and flourish ; the muscles become brawny ; 
the nerves toned as well as nicely sensitive ; and 
reason — keenly conscious of superiority, grad- 
ually assumes the ascendant. Who has conferred 
all these excellencies upon man ; given rise to all 
these charms of life ; to all these distinguished 
prerogatives in human destiny ? Nay, who has 
thus not only made man great and splendid, but 
his mission weighty, and enviable, and glorious ; 
as well as his rank and significance in animated 
nature, pre-eminent ? God. And yet after all 
this vast outlay of painstaking in behoof of man, 
this highest-rank specimen of sentient creation 
on earth ; this image of God, must already die 
in this early stage of his being, still in a course 



28 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

of development, or just maturing ! Alas, such is 
man's fate here below ! 

Is this then the whole of man ? Man wrought 
with so much admirable care, and placed in an 
abode teeming with Eden-scenes ; qualified for 
high enjoyment; and capable of generous and 
noble deeds ? What, to think, that God would 
place man here within surroundings so lovely 
in attractions ; so prolific in sources of pleasure ; 
so captivating and — properly used, so sufficing ; 
and then — at last, consign him to oblivion? 
Surely if God is good, and that he is good 
there can be no doubt, it cannot be; nay, it 
will not be ! 

I shall here subjoin a concise notice of the 
mortality, incident to the different periods of 
human life : showing how brief is our earthly 
sojourn, from Eicherand's " Elements of Physi- 
ology" : a communication, though not quite 
recent, it may, nevertheless, be deemed sub- 
stantially applicable to the present bills of mor- 
tality. 

" Man," writes the Professor, " dies at all 
ages ; and if the duration v of his life surpasses 
that of the lower animals, the great number of 
diseases to which he is liable, renders it much 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 29 

more uncertain, and is the cause why a much 
smaller number arrive at the natural term of 
existence. It has been attempted to discover 
what are the probabilities of life, that is, to as- 
certain, from observation, how long a man may 
expect to live, who has already reached a de- 
terminate age. From late accurate observations 
of the ages at which a number of persons have 
died, and from a comparison of the deaths with 
the births, it has been ascertained, that about 
one fourth of the children that are born, die 
within the first eleven months of life ; one third 
before twenty-three months ; and one half before 
they reach the eighth year. Two thirds of man- 
kind die before the thirty-ninth year, and three 
fourths before the fifty-first; so that, as Buffon 
observes, of nine children that are born, only 
one arrives at the age of seventy-three; of thirty, 
only one lives to the age of eighty ; while out of 
two hundred and ninety-one, only one lives to 
the age of ninetj 7 ; and in the last place, out of 
eleven thousand nine hundred and ninety-six, 
only one drags on a languid existence to the age 
of a hundred years." 

Death in Mature Life. — Man in mature life is 
not exempt from the infliction of death, though 

3* 



30 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

he may neither suffer decay nor prostration from 
superannuation, and when, therefore, he is still 
in the possession of unimpaired vigor of mind 
and body; when he is eminently capable of 
further research and self-amelioration ; when 
his fellow-beings continue to do homage to his 
worth, and recognize in him a person amply 
fitted to guide mankind in the paths of wisdom 
and usefulness. 

The man thus concisely delineated, is satisfied 
with his situation; with his fortune; with his 
opportunities of improvement, and a deeper 
penetration into the phenomena and laws of 
nature. He craves no change. Why should he ? 
He does not ask for health, he has it already; 
not for wealth, he is satisfied ; not for the esteem 
of mankind, he enjoys it abundantly; not for a 
fairer sky, he finds and adores God in the im- 
pending heavens; not — finally, for serenity of 
soul, he is happy! 

Why, let me ask, should a man, though ad- 
vanced in life, but still young in purpose and 
hale in vigor; buoyant in hope; resolute in en- 
ergy; in his ardor to serve his Maker, indefati- 
gable; and in the discharge of all his duties 
prompt and faithful, be smitten with death? 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 31 

To hurry away a man, thus sufficed, by death, 
seems like a ruthless intrusion into his happi- 
ness ; a cruel disturbance of his peace ; a need- 
less deprivation of blessings, keenly enjoyed and 
wisely used ! Such a deplorable fatality can be 
accounted for only on the supposition, that the 
sage thus snatched from his earthly Paradise, is 
heir to a Paradise in a world to come : this 
thought alone can justify so untimely and sinis- 
ter a fate, and " vindicate the ways of God to 
man" ! 



32 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 



CHAPTER IV. 

A Future Life, inferred from Analogies in the Present. 



In treating this subject, I shall simply aim to 
set in its proper light the correspondence which 
exists between desire and gratification, or — in 
other words, between our endowments and the 
provision which is made by the Creator, for their 
proper exercise or indulgence, and after that, 
briefly point out the analogy which is observed 
between this arrangement and our aspirations 
after a future life. 

In accomplishing this task, I shall mainly 
avail myself of the aid, which phrenology affords 
on this interesting subject, though that science is 
not devoted to a solution, or even a notice, of the 
present question. Its concordance with the sub- 
ject treated here, is merely accidental, not the 
result of design : its teaching is available to the 
object of this article, and, therefore, it is thank- 
fully recognized, without, however, positively 
indorsing the theory of its bumps ! 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 33 

Amativeness — one of the animal propensities 
in man, is necessary to the perpetuation of the 
race, and, therefore : on the principle above laid 
down, provision is made for its indulgence — the 
sexes exist ! — Again, philoprogenitiveness being 
given, it can be satisfied only in offspring. Adhe- 
siveness, once existing, must be gratified, and, 
hence, needs country and friends for its exercise ; 
on the other hand, combativeness finds its solution 
in the removal of physical and moral obstacles, 
which, to be removed, must, of course, exist; 
while destructi ven ess can be indulged only in 
the use of animals for food, and, hence, the ne- 
cessity of animated nature as the appropriate 
correlation. Moreover, possessing the gift of 
constructiveness, its objective significance is seen, 
according to "Webster, in " the formation of 
parts into a whole" ; acquisitiveness covets prop- 
erty, and, behold, the means to acquire it, are 
at once various and ample ; secretiveness too is 
a part of our natural endowments, and — enjoin- 
ing secrecy, we can readily comply with the in- 
junction : God having given us one gift, also 
gives us the other. First, there is the desire, 
and next, the indulgence. The one being given, 
the other follows as the inference from the prem- 



34 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

ises. Finally, self-esteem, or love of approba- 
tion, and cautiousness, or " the quality of being 
cautious" — both endowments, and classed, phren- 
ologically, among the propensities, are suscepti- 
ble of similar elucidation ; that is, the propensity 
of either existing, it is sure to be indulged or 
gratified; for when God bestows a power, he 
also provides for its exercise, and, hence, when 
he inspires hopes, it may be reasonably supposed 
that he will fulfill them ! 

The faculties, comprising the moral senti- 
ments, will next receive a brief attention. — Be- 
nevolence: the faculty first to be noticed, im- 
plies good will, or the disposition to do good. 
How manifold the occasions are for the exercise 
of this God-like virtue, it needs no prolix dis- 
quisition to illustrate. God says " be kind, be 
good," and everywhere there is room for a com- 
pliance with the behest. Veneration is another 
faculty, classed under this head, and its object is 
the recognition and worship of God. Behold, it 
is given, and God too is given, to employ and 
gratify it! Again, hope, or confidence in a 
future event, has its correlate in its appropriate 
realization : for as a faculty, it implies eventual 
possession. Here naturally follows ideality, or 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 35 

the love of the beautiful, the refined, the excel- 
lent, in nature and art, and is abundantly grati- 
fied in the contemplation of the grandeur and 
loveliness, witnessed in the various works and 
providences of the Creator. Next, wonder and 
consciousness require a concise notice. Of the 
former, Combe writes, " It prompts us to ad- 
miration, and desires something new," &c. 
Hence, there is plenty to admire, and the desire 
of something new, is sufficiently often gratified, 
to show the correspondence between the capacity 
and the enjoyment; nay, the certain indulgence 
of an innate soul-yearning! As to conscien- 
tiousness, it signifies — according to Webster, 
"A scrupulous regard to the decisions of con- 
science; a sense of justice, a strict conformity 
to its dictates" : it has, accordingly, its correlate 
and solution, in conscientiousness. Finally, a 
word about firmness and imitation, the last 
faculties, mentioned under the category of the 
moral sentiments. Of the former, Combe writes, 
" The other faculties of the mind are its objects. 
It supports and maintains their activity, and 
gives determination to our purposes." Of course, 
its functions are contingent on the existence of 
the objects upon which they are to be exercised, 



36 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

and without them they would be at once vain 
and unintelligible. As to the faculty of imita- 
tion, it is clear that if its office consists in the 
imitation of the actions and appearances of 
beings and things, these objects must exist, and 
that it is because they exist, that this faculty has 
its origin. Thus, then, the theory of correlation 
is, I conceive, not visionary, but a fact, which 
must be patent to every one, possessing ordinary 
intelligence ! 

Instances of capacities and their objective 
tendencies, might be readily multiplied, but the 
preceding details may suffice to vindicate and 
inculcate the theory, that endowment and func- 
tion, or instinct and enjoyment, go hand in hand, 
or — in other words, are reciprocal : the one pre- 
mising and inaugurating the other. 

Now, why should the foregoing disquisition, 
founded on daily experience, not suffice to jus- 
tify a belief in a future life ; for to yearn for it, 
is as much a natural instinct as it is to hunger 
and thirst, and as these cravings of nature are 
satisfied, why should this ineradicable longing 
for a life to come, not find its solution in gratifi- 
cation? All the human instincts, indicative of 
an invincible tendency towards a higher life, or, 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 37 

at least, of a continuation of life beyond the 
grave, are so many witnesses in behoof of our 
survival : in a conscious, personal existence, in 
death. That man — in his normal state, antici- 
pates a future life, is because God has so en- 
dowed him ; is because it is strictly accordant 
w T ith the wants, and interests, and happiness of 
humanity. When we hope in a hereafter, it is 
virtually God, who says, " Hope in a hereafter," 
and should he not enable us to realize this God- 
given hope ? In short, it is to be presumed that 
if, for example, the love of offspring, is not dis- 
appointed, neither can the love of immortality 
be disappointed; for both are gifts equally de- 
rived from God ! 

Finally, w^ith such evidence in support of the 
doctrine of a future life, it is — of course, impos- 
sible to share the cool apathy, expressed in the 
following Shakespearean stanza : 

" We are such stuff 
As dreams are made of, and our little life 
Is rounded with a sleep," 



38 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 



CHAPTEE V. 

The Apparent Occasional Suspensions of Kewards and Pun- 
ishments in the Present Life, seem to warrant the Infer- 
ence that there will be Adequate Recompense hereafter, 
and that, therefore, there w T ill be a Future Life. 

It is time to understand, it seems, that the re- 
wards and punishments, mentioned in the Bible, 
are not strictly simply of a moral nature and ten- 
dency, but rather of a municipal and arbitrary 
character, and are, therefore, to be judged in the 
light of the retribution peculiar to the adminis- 
tration of justice in civil governments. Such 
crude, irrelevant, and eminently unworthy ideas, 
attributed to God's judicial methods, are signifi- 
cant of a mode of thinking, common to vulgar 
minds, and to entertain them any longer, must 
consequently prove highly injurious to the pro- 
gress and happiness of the human race. From 
such fallacious and contemptible conceptions of 
the true nature and end of a rational and whole- 
some kind of jurisprudence, have arisen the 
opinions — often fancies, of heaven and hell, the 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 39 

one the charming abode of the good, or — may 
be, simply the elect, and the other the hideous 
receptacle of the bad, or reprobate ; the former 
implying the final reward, the latter the final 
punishment of retributive justice, and both de- 
noting — not the natural result or working of the 
principles of the moral law, but the effect and 
evidence of a decision, founded sometimes on 
caprice, often on partiality or antipathy ! 

Rewards and punishments : to be adapted, to 
the true amelioration or benefit of mankind, and 
thus be grounded in the psychical nature and 
needs of man, must be of a pre-eminently and. 
exclusively moral character ; for the human mind 
has its own appropriate and inalienable tribunal : 
before it all must ultimately bow, and whence, 
hence, a final judgment is pronounced in favor 
or in condemnation of the free-agent, who is the 
object of this searching juridical dispensation, 
which — though it may be tardy or conniving for 
a season, it never fails in the vindication of jus- 
tice, while its sentence is as infallible as it is 
impartial and inevitable. 

The rewards and punishments, administered 
in municipal society, are, no doubt, instrumental, 
more or less, in the furtherance of the proper 



40 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

training and the development of conscience, but 
their action is only indirect in its moral effects, 
while their aim is primarily political and, there- 
fore, confined within narrower limits than is the 
case with the retributive functions, inherent in 
our sense, or — rather, judgment, of right and 
wrong. The soul — it should be carefully borne 
in mind, embraces a world that is eminently its 
own, and the weighty affairs of this world, can 
be satisfactorily administered only on purely 
moral principles, and for rigidly and solely moral 
ends. A human judge may sentence to the gal- 
lows or to the State-prison, but he cannot, in 
popular parlance, sentence to hell, nor can secu- 
lar distinctions or flatteries secure an entrance 
into heaven, to the favorite ; for — in either case, 
conscience is the final arbitrater : its verdict is 
decisive, and untrammeled by political prece- 
dents ! 

To adduce still further evidence that conscience 
alone possesses the power to educe the spiritual 
states, commonly known as heaven and hell, or 
future happiness and misery, I shall add to the 
teachings, laid down in the foregoing paragraphs, 
the decidedly common-sense doctrine, advanced 
by St. Paul, on this emphatically paramount sub- 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 41 

ject, and recorded in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
verses, of the second chapter of his Epistle to the 
Romans, where this most zealous gentile apos- 
tle predicates the following thesis of the moral 
functions of the soul, as exemplified — for in- 
stance, among the heathens ; a thesis, which may 
fearlessly appeal to the intelligence of the pres- 
ent age, for its undoubted correctness, as well 
as its incomparable worth, in moral training. 
" When," he writes, " the gentiles, which have 
not the law,* do by nature the things contained 
in the law, these, having not the law, are a law 
unto themselves, which show the work of the 
law, written in their hearts, their conscience also 
bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean- 
while accusing, or else excusing one another." 

In this pithy quotation, the doctrine is clearly 
and forcibly taught, that reward and punishment 
— to be ameliorative : normally soul-developing, 
and, hence, facilitating of true moral growth, 
must have a conscience-basis, whose retribution 
is, therefore, internal, and is, consequently, not 
dependent for its proper execution, or complete 
realization, on outward contingencies or acci- 



* The Mosaic law, or the civil code of the Jews. 

4* 



42 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

dents — on a hades or an elysium ; for its fruitions 
may abound on the rack, in the dungeon, or in 
the fires of Smithfield, while its torments may 
be present in the palace, on the throne, or in the 
bridal chamber: all is well, if it is well within, 
or as Crabbe sings in hymnic strains, fraught 
with hallowed truth and timely warning : 

11 Oh conscience ! conscience! man's most faithful friend, 
Him canst thou comfort, ease, relieve, defend ; 
But if he will thy friendly checks forego, 
Thou art, oh, woe for me ! his deadliest foe !" 

It is, no doubt, often the case that God exer- 
cises moral discipline over persons, unperceived, 
nay, unsuspected, by the majority of their fellow- 
beings. How many may be made wretched by 
the rebukes of conscience, charging their guilty 
souls with neglect of duty ; violation of law; 
waste of talents, God often only knows. What 
sleepless nights ; what humiliation ; what mor- 
tification, &c, may not be owing to the retal- 
iation of an injured, bleeding conscience ! The 
same remark holds good conversely of many 
of the seemingly neglected; the despised; the 
abused, &c. Unseen by mortal eye, they are 
owned and blessed by God; and are, hence, glad 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 43 

and contented in the hallowed sense of conscious 
rectitude : they are virtually in heaven, though 
in the midst of evil influences ! 

Though the retributive justice, emanating 
from the decisions of the moral sentiments, or — 
figuratively speaking, the tribunal of conscience, 
is not always asleep, however its presence may 
be overlooked or misconstrued, it is, neverthe- 
less, patent that — " reasoning from what we 
know/' sin frequently goes unpunished, and 
godliness unrewarded;, that vice revels in lux- 
ury, while virtue pines in want. There is, in 
fact, often an evident disharmony between the 
lives and the fortunes of many persons, which 
seems to imply an inadequate or partial adminis- 
tration of the moral code, thus making it incom- 
patible both with our sense of the Divine justice, 
and the moral principles and expectations of 
mankind. Such being the case, it calls loudly 
for rectification, which.— as this is impossible : at 
least does not appear to be practicable, in the 
present order of things, it is at once natural and 
reasonable to suppose, that it will be attainable 
under more genial circumstances, and to be, 
therefore, deferred to a future life, and more 
happy auspices. 



44 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

Sucli improved; such universality of justice, 
allowing no exception, and given no occasion 
for impious cavil, it is — it must be conceded by 
every reflecting mind, but natural to expect of 
a just and holy God, whom we adore as the 
common father of all. Indeed, according to the 
moral nature of man : the work of his hands, he 
is ^(/"-necessitated to govern man in accordance 
with that nature; that is, to punish and reward 
without ceasing and everywhere in order — on 
the one hand, to deliver from evil, and, on the 
other, to facilitate the acquisition of virtue ; and 
if this great problem in the administration of 
moral jurisprudence, is not solved here, it is but 
the simple dictate of common sense to expect 
that it will receive attention hereafter, under 
probably new conditions of humanity, and under 
providences less complicated, or — may be, less 
mysterious ! 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 45 



CHAPTER VI. 

Why is Man here at all, if he is not to exist hereafter ? 

Though man was a dweller upon the earth, 
long anterior to the hypothetical Adamic era, his 
introduction here is but of comparatively recent 
date, in the history of the world. Ages and ages 
— too vast to be conceived by the mind of man, 
and too numerous to be expressed by mortal 
tongue, had elapsed before the fiat of the Al- 
mighty — let there be man, went forth ! All this 
Ions* Ions; time, man was not. Other worlds 
may have known him : the stone-age of geologists, 
did not yet attest or feel his presence. The world 
revolved well — it seems, without him, and not 
existing, he could not desire to exist, nor deplore 
his nonentity as a loss to him. Evidently there 
must have been good reasons why God so or- 
dered, that man should not exist during all this 
prodigiously extended period of time. At length 
the earth was created. Nevertheless, after this 
signal display of creative power, myriad ages 



46 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

again passed away before man finally made his 
appearance. Why did he appear ? Why could 
not the present world do as well without him as 
the past? Perhaps it was on his own account, 
that he was called into existence, being clearly 
destined — as appears from his superior abilities, 
to hold the highest rank among the creatures of 
the earth, and, hence, most likely destined to 
signalize his presence by a life at once great and 
felicitous. Let us see. 

Man plays, indeed, an eminently distinguished 
part among the various ranks of animated nature, 
and is, no doubt, the most admirable specimen 
of sublunary creation. His enjoyment here, 
however, whether it is viewed in a psychical or 
physical light, is far from being uninterrupted 
and complete. For he is still only a finite being, 
and — as such, liable to error, sin, disease, and 
even to grim death itself. His sufferings — 
arising from cares, trials, misfortunes, &c, are 
indisputably diverse and manifold. His career 
— probably in the full tide of success ; buoyant 
with brilliant prospects ; and intent on noble 
schemes of usefulness, is not seldom suddenly 
arrested by a peremptory summons to die, or, 
according to the Edda-myth, to meet the " wolf 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 47 

of doom !" No matter what amount of wretched- 
ness so sad and sudden a fatality may cause his 
bosom friend, or how much his little ones may 
weep over or lament his untimely fate. Some- 
times, alas, he is literally a life-long invalid, and 
rarely sees a sunny day, or feels a thrill of joy. 
No period in his life, from the unborn babe, 
to the venerable octogenarian — an exceptional 
instance of longevity, exempts him from the 
iron grasp or stern resolve of the insatiable, 
unrelenting "King of Terrors/' 

It is likewise true, that he is also often pleased 
and feels happy in the course of his brief and 
changeful, earthly sojourn. Indeed, if such was 
not the case, his life would be decidedly unbear- 
able, and his soul — instead of now and then, 
soaring aloft on the wings of hope, would be 
doomed only to bear the burdens and taste the 
ills of life. In short, I think that after mature 
reflection upon the subject, we shall not go far 
wrong in saying, that the delights and aversions; 
the gains and losses, in human destiny, are about 
equal, and that man is, hence, neither exalted to 
angelic perfection, nor placed on the level of a 
possibly lower and meaner type of humanity ! 

It is clear from the preceding remarks, that 



48 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

there exists no reason : at least not any that we 
can discover, for the introduction of man upon 
our globe ; for it is evident — as has been sug- 
gested, that the world, in all its essential particu- 
lars, could have accomplished the ends of crea- 
tion quite successfully without his presence or 
his interference. He was certainly not needed 
to give completion or direction to planetary mo- 
tion, nor can he — by dint of his sagacity, make 
the rays of the sun brighter, or the sky above 
him, either clearer or fairer to look upon ! The 
lion and the tiger would have roared or growled, 
nor ceased to flourish, though these fierce and 
puissant beasts should never have feasted on 
human flesh; and the earth would have been 
fertile and lovely, though there should not have 
been any one to admire or to till it : as is proved 
from the condition of the earth, during some of 
the geological epochs anterior to man ! 

Taking the foregoing disquisition carefully into 
account, it is impossible, on any sound, rational 
principles, to believe that God would create man 
and place him upon the earth, merely to figure 
here a brief space of time, v alternately enjoying 
and suffering, striving and quiescing, as is nat- 
ural to a finite being of his nature and habits, 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 49 

and tlien — without further clew of the reason of 
his origin, or the necessity and cogency of his 
existence, pass away* for ever from the category 
of conscious animate existence ! It is simply 
inconceivable that he should take so much pains 
to fit out a being with such varied and marvel- 
ous endowments both of a physical and mental 
nature, to act but a fleeting and often ignoble 
part in life's fitful drama, and after that — like 
every other material structure, becoming the 
prey of chemical forces, cease to exist as a 
human entity! Better, far better for man, never 
to have been born, than at last to pass away, 
having been but the poor, pitiable victim of a 
Tantalus' fate! 

To elucidate the previous arguments a little 
further : what should we think of a parent who, 
knowing that the children — for whom the pro- 
vision is to be made, cannot survive more than a 
few days, should, nevertheless, purchase a large 
and splendid domain for them ; build a magnifi- 
cent palace on it ; and furnish it in a most costly 
and elegant manner ? I answer, that his labor 
would be deemed useless; his expense, a waste; 
and his plan, a chimera ! Man — it is evident, 
can be guilty of such glaring inconsistency ; of 



50 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

such vain show ; of such prodigal misapplication 
of means, but to God, such imprudence is impos- 
sible, and as he cannot, consequently, fall under 
a similar imputation of perpetrating a gross dis- 
crepancy between means and ends, it must be 
assumed that he designs man for a future and, 
therefore, higher state of existence, considered 
as a continuation, and advanced stage of the 
present life. Such a life cannot fail, it seems, 
when we call to mind that God is wise and 
good, and that we are, hence, necessarily con- 
straint to predicate a future life as the natural 
sequel of the present, or else renounce all pre- 
tensions to sound logical sequence. In short, 
without such a destiny, man's genesis in creation 
is a mystery intractable to human comprehen- 
sion, and an anomaly unparalleled among all 
known cosmic wonders ! 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 51 



CHAPTEE VII. 

If there is no Futine Life, how are Mourners of the Dead to 

be comforted ? 

Either the thought or sight of death, is ap- 
palling to the contemplation of the living, giving 
rise, in most cases, to a lively sense of insecurity, 
while — at the same time, it creates a mingled 
feeling of dismay and alarm. Such a decidedly 
sinister effect, produced by the presence of death, 
is — I conceive, neither strange nor unintelligi- 
ble; for considered simply as the negation or 
cessation of life, it is not only extremely un- 
lovely, but exceedingly repulsive as well as dis- 
gusting, instinctively causing the aversion in- 
stead of the attraction of the beholder. "What is 
it that the amazed observer notices before him ? 
A corpse, or lifeless body, passing rapidly into 
a state of decomposition, and developing, as it 
does so, a series of most offensive gases ; a coffin, 
decked with tinsel — as if in mockery of a vain 
attempt to disguise an ugly fact; a grave — the 



52 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

hideous receptacle of corruption, and lonely, dis- 
mal isolation from the living !* 

Now amid this sad, revolting, and eminently 
uncongenial scene, how great, and often pro- 
found, are the mourning and sighing; how copi- 
ous and bitter the tears ; how heart-rending and 
overpowering the expressions of sympathy and 
regret, which are witnessed among the bereft 
and desolate ! All these profound manifesta- 
tions of grief, are perfectly natural, and cannot 
be the least perplexing to any one : they are 
mostly the genuine symbols both of a loss, which 
can never be replaced, and of an event, which is 
seldom quite relieved from the anxieties, inspired 
by doubt and misgivings about the future, though 
in the end, hope may be supposed usually to tri- 
umph in the arduous struggle. Gloomy and 
repellent, however, as is the death-scene, and 
calamitous as its ravages are keenly felt to be, 
it often elicits noble, praiseworthy resolves, and 
gives rise to displays of most disinterested and 
generous sympathies. It is, hence, that we find 
now and then, grievously afflicted and sorely dis- 
tressed survivors, willing to die : to make a vica- 



* A notice of crematio?i, is deferred to another time. 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 53 

rious offering of themselves, if the fell doom of 
the dear, beloved, smitten one, could only be 
reversed; nay, perhaps, suspended only a little 
longer. Thus the a«;ed would often not hesitate 
to take the place of the young; husbands and 
wives, to anticipate each other's fate ; or the 
lover, to cast himself into the abyss to save the 
life of his betrothed, at the risk of his own ! 

Mourning at funerals; lamentations over the 
dead; the wearing of funebrial apparel; the 
careful and even scrupulous preservation of 
keepsakes; the presence of fond likenesses of 
the cherished dead ; the erection of monuments 
to the memory of the departed, &c; are all sig- 
nal demonstrations of a deep sympathy, and an 
abiding reminiscence, both among heathens and 
Christians : human nature is everywhere essen- 
tially and strikingly the same ! Everywhere 
there is death, and everywhere death brings in 
its sombre and lugubrious train, the same dire 
fatalities of hearts made desolate ; of hopes dis- 
appointed; and of charming Eden-scenes con- 
verted into arid, bleak wastes. And yet, in all 
civilized lands — as I shall endeavor to show 
hereafter, mankind have believed, more or less 
understandingly and steadfastly, in a future life. 

5* 



54 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

Why then do men mourn so bitterly at the death 
of their friends, near and often very dear to them, 
of course, if they believe — as they profess to do, 
in a continuous, or posthumous existence of the 
beloved departed ? Especially is this inquiry 
most appropriately addressed to the Christians. 
Why should I; why should any one, mourn, 
weep, and be ineffably miserable, if no one en- 
tertains the least doubt that the dead, known so 
long, or — at least, loved so well, live, and are in 
a state vastly more conducive to happiness than 
the one, which they have left? Should they not 
rather be glad that death has, at last, relieved the 
sick from his suffering; made it possible for 
the aged to be young again ; and the weary and 
drooping to find the long, frequently intensely 
coveted rest ? Whence this glaring discrepancy 
between faith and conduct ? Whence this crim- 
inal trifling with a subject at once so sacred and 
so replete with solemn import ? I say, I hope, 
and betray but signs of despair ! I say, I am a 
Christian, and fancy that I am w T iser and better 
than the heathens, yet similar mourning and 
wailing distinguish the obituary rites of both ! 

Mourning for the dead generally ; sorrow 
especially for friends, w T hich a departure from 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 55 

this life, is particularly apt to call forth, is at 
once — as we have seen, natural and absolutely 
irrepressible. It consequently follows that he, 
who can witness death's ravages : even the cold, 
pallid, outstretched form of his once loved and 
dearly cherished one, without a quivering of the 
lip; without a sigh, a tear, a sense of loneliness, 
or profound regret, must be insensible of the 
finer feelings, the nobler emotions of the human 
heart, and unworthy the name man, unless his 
equanimity of mind is traceable to the creed in 
a future life, which alone is calculated to pour 
the balm of healing in the otherwise troubled soul. 
Without this creed, ever energetically pointing 
upward and onward, w T hat is likely to follow 
when death with Ms grim visage and sullen 
mien, rudely stares us in the face ? Have we 
any succor besides ? Any prospect but a rayless 
night ? Any to-morrow ? What then remains 
for us, if a future life fails us, or no one, beyond 
the bounds of time, beckons us to a home in the 
spirit-world ? Nothing, oh sad alternative ! oh 
evil fate ! remains but the grave, decay, and the 
speedy resolution of the inanimate organism into 
its component elements ! Here is ample room, 
it seems, for the most exhaustive sorrow; for 



56 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

ceaseless tears of anguish ; for pining away in 
the fierce grasp of blank despondency ! Is it 
likely that God would ordain or approve, that 
such appalling catastrophe should overtake his 
poor, feeble, helpless children, looking wistfully 
heaven-w r ard for the salvation of a future life, 
and not rather — stretching out a father's hand, 
say : " All is ready, come ; live, and ever grow, 
and be blessed in the similitude of your Crea- 
tor" ? Indeed, I may say, in conclusion that 
without the expectation of such heirship to a 
future life, St. Paul's maxim of life — uttered 
contingently, might be appropriate^ adopted by 
such as may still crave enjoyment: "What," 
writes the apostle, " advantageth it me, if the 
dead rise not? Let us eat and drink, for to- 
morrow we die" ! 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 57 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Heritable or Commemorative Immortality. 

The word, signifying immortality, lias until 
more recent times, I believe, implied exclusively 
a conscious, personal existence hereafter — a pe- 
riod in human destiny, succeeding the termina- 
tion of the present transient and uncertain life. 
This : among the far greater part of mankind, 
is its meaning still, which— even independently 
of this salient fact, seems to involve the only 
tenable and consistent idea on this important 
and abstruse subject. Any other interpretation 
of the import of the word immortality must, 
therefore, fall far short of the true end of such 
continuous and unlimited existence. For if — 
after death, I am no longer to be a distinct, indi- 
vidual human entity, I cannot conceive any other 
form or species of immortality, however desirable 
or worthy of human aspiration, it might be in 
some respects, that would adequately answer to 
my conception of the nature and end of such 



58 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

a state, or measurably satisfy my posthumous 
wants and expectations. Minds ? however, dif- 
fer, and even tastes vary, as I shall presently 
show. 

The heading of the present chapter, may strike 
some of my readers as odd, perhaps, as incom- 
prehensible, considered as intended to express a 
phase of future life, or immortality. The sequel 
— it is hoped, may throw sufficient light upon 
the question, to make clear its meaning, and 
enable us duly to estimate its worth. The in- 
formation of the somewhat novel and startling 
position, which the doctrine of immortality as- 
sumes here, is derived chiefly from an Essay, 
entitled " The Soul and Future Life," by Fred- 
eric Harrison, and the comments made upon 
it by several distinguished English gentlemen. 
Both the essay and comments — it may be further 
stated, are contained in the second volume of 
" Current Discussion," &c, edited by Edward L. 
Burlingame. 

From the gleanings which I have been thus 
enabled to make, on this interesting and ab- 
sorbing subject, the fact is ascertained that our 
author's creed of a future life, or of the immor- 
tality of man — shared : it appears, by several 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 59 

eminent men, is — strangely as it may seem, 
strictly confined to the present world, and con- 
sists, not in a conscious, personal existence, but 
— as set forth in the title of this chapter, in a 
heritable or commemorative immortality : an im- 
mortality, enjoyed without the individual or act- 
ual presence of the person, who is supposed to 
realize it : a belief, which seems much akin to 
what logicians call false reasoning, and which, 
therefore, Professor Huxley sarcastically desig- 
nates as " An immortality by deputy" : it being 
intrusted to the fostering care and safe-keeping 
of posterity. A personal, or hypostatic immor- 
tality — in the generally accepted import of the 
term, I may add, Mr. Harrison : according to 
the learned Professor just quoted, considers as a 
selfish immortality, and of course, I presume, an 
immortality unworthy of a noble and generous 
aspiration ! 

Nothing is more natural — as all history attests, 
than that men, who are eminent for wisdom or 
virtue, should wish to be well-thought of, after 
death, by mankind in future ages ; and the flat- 
tering thought that they might thus live in the 
memory and the lives of men hereafter, inspired 
them with the undaunted and laudable resolution 



60 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

to lead — as much as possible, unblamable and 
useful lives, worthy of the approval and imita- 
tion of all true and good men, among all peoples 
in all time : I know nothing more becoming the 
efforts or the hopes of men than the love of 
future fame. Animated by this passion, gov- 
erned by such lofty aims, and thus striving for 
the mastery in the race for honorable distinction, 
man is justly to be deemed the glory and model 
of his age, while — as such, he may legitimately 
claim for his labors and merits, a grateful and 
universal recognition, among all men, capable of 
appreciating human worth, and prompt to emu- 
late and perpetuate it. It is thus that history 
immortalizes men, and that their well-deserved 
praises are sounded abroad among their fellow- 
beings. Hence, while mankind endure, there 
needs be no apprehension that the fame and 
merits of the good, the useful, the exemplary, 
will not live and flourish in the lives and annals 
of an admiring posterity : they — according to 
Mr. Harrison's creed, inherit precious moral and 
intellectual gifts from the honored dead, which 
will be ever held sacred ; pointed to ; and talked 
of as undying memorials, more durable than 
brass ; more to be desired than pearls or beauty ; 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 61 

more ennobling and exalting than worldly power 
or courtly grandeur ! 

Of course, it may reasonably be expected that 
Mr. Harrison, who believes in the extinction of 
the conscious, personal entity at death, will — in 
conformity with his peculiar creed of a future 
life, strive to the utmost to bequeath something 
eminently excellent and praiseworthy to those, 
who will be finally intrusted with the proper 
nurture and judicious use of the precious be- 
quest to them, of his good principles and deeds, 
worthy — I doubt not, of universal acceptance. 

Finally, though the Harrisonian creed of im- 
mortality, is, by no means, without decided 
merits, considered as a factor or element signally 
promotive of human progress and social prosper- 
ity; yet it is one-sided, and satisfies but one 
phase of our need — the present, the earthly, 
while it entirely ignores the far higher and 
weightier aspiration of the soul — the aspiration 
to an immortal life beyond the grave ! I cannot 
but, therefore, coincide with Professor Huxley, 
when he protests against the use of the phrase, 
employed by Mr. Harrison, " I look to a future 
life/' when all that is meant by it, by him and 
his school, is that the influence of our sayings and 



62 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

doings will be more or less felt by a number of people 
after our death ! 

The following stanza, taken from the First 
Part of the " Genius" of Gothe, inculcating a 
creed in admirable accord with that of Mr. Har- 
rison, as far as attention to future fame among 
mankind is the fruitful subject of his theme, will 
conclude the present article : 

" Ein groszer Mann lebt ewig in der Welt Gedachtnisz, 
Das von Geschlecht sich zu Geschlechtern reiht ; 
Sein Name wirkt ein heiliges Vermachtnisz, 
Inseinen Jungern fort und fort erneut, 
Und in so edler Nachfolg' und Gedachtnisz 
Gelangt die Zugend zur Unsterblichkeit ; 
Zu gleichem Preise sieht sich aufgefordert, 
Wem gleicher Trieb im edlen Busen lodert I" 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 63 



CHAPTER IX. 

If there is no Future Life, the Human Race must finally 

become extinct. 

When man dies, he ceases to exist as an en- 
tity, and his communication — considered as a 
conscious, personal being, with the living, is, 
for ever, at an end. His organism : admirably 
wrought, undergoes rapid and inevitable decom- 
position, and its component parts resolve them- 
selves into their ultimate elements. Thus one 
human being after another, yields up his life 
and passes out of sight. Bearing in mind now 
that the earth — the present habitation of man, 
must at length : as is the fate of all other finite 
creations, wear out, and like its satellite — the 
moon, be consequently no longer adapted to the 
wants and end of organic life, it is clear that his 
situation, being no longer in accord with his 
destination, his prolonged existence here is, of 
course, rendered impossible, and he must hence 
gradually die out, and the race thus becoming 



64 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

extinct. Such a dire catastrophe will, most un- 
doubtedly, sooner or later, overtake him, if he is 
not designed for a future life : a life of a con- 
scious, personal existence, to be realized beyond 
the limits of his present domicile. Doomed to 
the latter alternative, he would infallibly sink to 
a level with the lower animals, and, at best, end 
his once proud and hopeful career under the 
humiliating category of fossil-man, perhaps to be 
stared and wondered at, by some curious ex- 
plorer of a world once teeming with life, and 
pleasant to the sight, but then presenting noth- 
ing but frightful scenes of desolation and decay ! 
Alas, can such be the end of man ? 

At this stage of the investigation of the sub- 
ject, claiming our attention, a closer and more 
definite inquiry into the term soul, seems to be 
necessary and proper, both with a view to a 
more intelligent understanding of it, as well as 
for the purpose of further elucidating the propo- 
sition and general bearing of this chapter. 

The soul — as it is commonly understood, may 
be considered in a different light, both as to its 
nature and origin as well as to the end, which it 
is intended to accomplish. Like all other created 
substances, it too — it is very evident, must have 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 65 

its origin in the will of the Creator : this propo- 
sition is no less plain than it is true, and needs, 
therefore, no argument to verify it. On the other 
hand, the nature and destination of the soul, 
demand a wider range of thought, and must, 
consequently, receive a somewhat more careful 
scrutiny. 

First, the origin of the soul. — Is the soul an 
emanation from the Divine being ; a ray derived 
from the heavenly light? The pantheist or the 
person, who believes that the universe is identi- 
cal in import with God, unhesitatingly answers 
in the affirmative, and has no doubt that the 
soul — the thinking substance in us, according to 
Locke's definition of it, is a part of the Deity 
himself, though maintaining a hypostatic relation 
to him. The idea is comforting and exalting; 
for if the soul is an efflux out of the Godhead, it 
follows plainly that it cannot perish in the sense 
of a finite entity, subject to destructive chemical 
influence, but must live co-eternally with God, 
or — in other words, be necessarily immortal ! 

The term pantheism may need a little further 

explanation, to show that it implies, by no means, 

anything necessarily obnoxious, either to good 

sense or true piety. I shall, therefore, quote a 

6* 



66 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

few sentences from Chambers's Encyclopaedia, 
calculated to answer this purpose: "Panthe- 
ism," says the writer, " is derived from the 
Greek pan, all, and theos, God, and is the name 
given to that system of speculation which, in its 
spiritual form, identifies the universe with God, 
and therefore may be called akosmism, and in its 
more material form, God with the universe. It 
is only the latter kind of pantheism that is logi- 
cally open to the accusation of Atheism; the 
former has often the expression of a profound 
and mystic religiosity. The antiquity of pan- 
theism is undoubtedly great, for it is prevalent 
in the oldest known civilization in the world — 
the Hindu. Yet it is a later development of 
thought than Polytheism, the natural instinctive 
creed of primitive races," &c. 

Second, the soul may be created; may, there- 
fore, be a creature ; and, hence, finite. If it is 
finite, unless otherwise especially ordained by 
the Creator, it must irrevocably share the fate of 
all conditional existence — an existence dependent 
on the Divine will for realization, and liable to 
annihilation, at least so far as conscious, per- 
sonal entity is in question. Our souls may, 
however, be finite substances, while God may, 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 67 

nevertheless, "have endowed them with the prin- 
ciple of immortality, and if such is the case, the 
idea of death could not have anything repulsive 
or terrible in it : it would be rather a welcome 
messenger, a Godsend, than an evil. It would 
be, in fact, only a means of calling the children 
home, therefore, a blessing; nay, a thrice happy 
event! 

Third, the soul may be material, and yet not 
necessarily of a perishable and transient nature. 
He that can raise matter to the dignity of a 
thinking being — as God undoubtedly can, can 
also preserve that being, and make it for ever, 
a living, thinking being! If God, therefore, 
thus wills, a soul wrought out of matter, is just 
as much under his control and disposal as any 
other finite soul, in whatever way it may have 
originated ; for with God nothing is impossible, — 
unless it militates against his laws, which are 
unerringly devised, and irrevocably fixed ! 

Locke, the learned author of " An Essay con- 
cerning the Human Understanding," thus states 
his interesting views on this momentous subject, 
in his discussion with the bishop of Worcester : 
" From thinking experienced in us," he writes, 
" we have a proof of a thinking substance in us, 



68 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

which in my sense is a spirit. Against this your 
lordship will argue, that, by what I have said of 
the possibility that God may, if he pleases, super- 
add to matter a faculty of thinking, it cannot be 
proved that there is a spiritual substance in us, 
because, upon that supposition, it is possible it 
may be a material substance that thinks in us. 
I grant it; but add, that the general idea of sub- 
stance being the same everywhere, the modifica- 
tion of thinking, or the power of thinking, joined 
to it, makes it a spirit, without considering what 
other modification it has ; as, whether it has the 
modification of solidity or not. As, on the other 
hand, a substance, that has the modification of 
solidity, is matter, whether it has the modifica- 
tion of thinking or not. And, therefore, if your 
lordship means by a spiritual, an immaterial sub- 
stance, I grant I have not proved, nor upon my 
principles can it be proved — your lordship mean- 
ing, as I think you do, demonstratively proved, 
that there is an immaterial substance in us that 
thinks. Though I presume, from what I have 
said about this supposition of a system of mat- 
ter, thinking, will prove it in the highest degree 
probable, that the thinking substance in us is 
immaterial/' &c. 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 69 

From a careful summing up of the foregoing 
arguments, it is evident that whatever may be 
the origin of the human soul, it is alike God's 
work, and that, accordingly, its immortality is 
entirely at the discretion of its Creator, whose 
wisdom and goodness are — I conceive, no more 
to be doubted than his existence, whence it is to 
be inferred that there is a strong probability, that 
the heavenly Father, who has called souls into 
being, will not allow so fair and noble a speci- 
men of his creatorship to perish. No, God can- 
not thus labor in vain; cannot thus take away 
what is so dear to us ; or for ever erase from the 
scroll of creation the memory of beings, gifted 
with minds akin to his own ! 



70 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 



CHAPTER X. 

Our Morals, considered in Kelation to a Future Life. 

That a belief in a future life must have a 
powerful influence in determining the nature of 
the present, there can be no reasonable doubt. 
Hence — it is self-evident, that it cannot be indif- 
ferent to me how I live or spend my time and 
talents, if I have good reason to think that I shall 
exist hereafter, and be consequently held amen- 
able for my conduct ; or — in other words, it can- 
not be immaterial to me how I acquit myself 
here, if I am sure that my rank, my influence, 
my happiness, in a future life, will essentially 
depend upon the manner in which I think and 
act in this : these propositions — at once plain 
and easily comprehensible, are founded partly 
upon undoubted experience, and partly upon 
analogy, which enables us to anticipate the fu- 
ture by a reference to facts and events in the 
past, and must, therefore, be considered to have 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 71 

no small weight in the decision of the present 
important question. 

It is evident then, that our morals, and the 
belief or want of belief, in a future life, are in- 
timately connected or correlated, and that, ac- 
cordingly — in a great measure at least, the prin- 
cipal part of mankind may be supposed to be 
good or bad, and thus to live wisely or foolishly, 
in proportion as it believes or denies a future 
existence. People are not all yet Stoics, and, 
hence, their moral principles are not satisfied by 
simply submitting to the dictates of a fancied 
categorical imperative, claiming peremptory and 
implicit obedience to its behest, without inquir- 
ing into the reason or motive of such arbitrary 
and despotic proceeding; for to do or not to do 
a thing without any rational inducement for our 
conduct, is — to say the least, eminently absurd 
as well as destructive of all true morality. Vir- 
tue, however great or disinterested it may be, 
must be blind and utterly reckless, not to study 
the probable results to which it will lead, and 
to be governed accordingly. If I am to do thus 
or so — as an intelligent, moral agent, I must : 
I repeat, know the reason, otherwise there can 
be no motive of action, and to act without a 



72 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

sufficient motive, is to act not as a sensible or 
reasonable being, but as an automaton, which is 
clearly outside of the sphere of the moral cate- 
gories.* 

"What has been already said of the likelihood 
that there will be a future life, because the ame- 
liorative ends of man of the present, seem to be 
but imperfectly or only partially attained, holds 
good especially in respect to the demands and 
complete recognition of the moral law, which 
cannot be satisfied here — as the experience of 
mankind indubitably testifies, either in its per- 

* Those philosophers, who postulate an innate moral sense, 
can — it seems, have no difficulty of anticipating the exact 
forms which human conduct will : under any given circum- 
stances, assume ; for — granted that they are correct in their 
views, the life of man will be, of course, the necessary result 
or evolution of such a pre-psychical arrangement. I regret 
that I cannot indorse this seemingly very convenient theory ; 
for a striking diversity of moral conduct, observable among 
mankind, according to difference of age, culture, vocation, 
&c, clearly shows that there is no such moral sense, or pre- 
ordained infallible guide of life. On the contrary, the history 
of the human race shows most conclusively, that what is 
called the moral sense, is simply a constitutional susceptibil- 
ity or capacity of the moral development of the soul ; and 
that, hence, the moral sense is the gradual result of human 
experience, and, therefore, actually based upon induction. 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 73 

sonal or social influence upon the interests of our 
race. Time is too short; opportunities often 
limited or fleeting ; and men's capacity for free- 
agency, still too inexperienced, too imperfectly 
informed, to do it full justice and thus allow it 
ample sway. This admirable capacity is clearly 
only in an incipient stage of growth and effi- 
ciency: a plant just set out, and watered, and 
hedged in a little, but not grown, not matured ! 
It affords me much pleasure, therefore, to be able 
in the elucidation of this important subject, to 
refer for approval and sympathy to the opinion 
of so famous a philosopher as Kant, who enter- 
tained the undoubted conviction that the desti- 
nation of mankind to an immortal life, is the 
absolute condition of an ever-increasing approx- 
imation to the requirements and full benefits of 
the moral law ! 

On the other hand, it is possible that a species 
of morality may be practiced — as far as form or 
semblance is concerned, from sheer selfishness, 
and the individual and society be still very much 
benefited by it. Immorality or vice is justly 
deemed disgraceful in the judgment of the bet- 
ter part of mankind, and — to escape so unpleas- 
ant an estimation of their character, people soon 



74 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

perceive that it will be to their advantage, to 
assume at least the guise and air of virtue; con- 
tention is exceedingly disagreeable, causing pain- 
ful as well as malignant feelings, and it is, hence, 
natural that amicable and kind relations should 
be cultivated to avoid so unhappy a result; 
crime, being a violation of law and the social 
weal, it is met, for the sake both of self-protec- 
tion and the determent of the evil-doer, with 
due and often speedy punishment : " I will rather 
conform to the institutions of society/' says he, 
"than suffer ignominy," though he may be 
totally regardless of the moral sentiment; idle- 
ness entails want and suffering, and the idle is, 
of course, often in very great distress, when he 
cannot but learn to appreciate the inestimable 
advantages, which may be derived from a careful 
and persistent practice of the twin-blessings of 
industry and economy; finally — to give but one 
more instance in point, the connubial relation 
having been rendered extremely wretched and 
distasteful, in consequence of the infidelity of 
one of the parties, self-interest — ever dominant 
among the unprincipled", soon dictates an oppo- 
site and more prudent behavior. 

Not any motives or reasons of conduct, how- 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 75 

ever well they may be calculated to alleviate suf- 
fering ; to prevent disorder and crime ; to foster 
the interests of virtue or science, &c, are really 
laudable and, hence, to be unqualifiedly ap- 
proved, unless they emanate from strictly moral 
principles, whose aim is solely to do right; to 
be invariably truthful ; to be diligent in giving 
succor to those that are in distress ; to further 
with equal care the public weal and the rights of 
the individuals, &c. To do only what we con- 
scientiously consider just and proper, and w^hat 
is at once useful and honorable among men, as 
well as approved by God, must be ever our most 
sacred dutv, and should be our chief and most 
exquisite delight. Shams can never benefit man, 
and must ever be an unmitigated abomination in 
the sight of God ! 

A point of too much importance to be passed 
over in silence in this place, is the idea of a 
barely possible future life, implying simply 'poten- 
tiality, and, therefore, deciding nothing positively 
either affirmatively or negatively on the subject. 
In such a case, common sense teaches us to 
make the best of our circumstances, and to live 
as blamelessly and as usefully as possible. In 
short, to do the right and shun the wrong, as far 



76 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

as reason and our relations in life, will make 
plain our duty and consistent our conduct with 
the moral sense. Our motto must ever be, be 
conscientious ; learn, by all means, to know and to 
do the will of your Maker ; live as wisely and as 
ethically well as is in your power : this is our 
duty. As to the rest, buried in the thick, im- 
penetrable gloom of futurity, we leave that to 
God, assured that the infinitely good and wise 
Ruler of the universe, will always act wisely 
and well, amen ! 

I will only add in conclusion, the following 
opportune and appropriate couplet from Young's 
" Night Thoughts" : 

11 Who does the best his circumstance allows, 
Does well, acts nobly — angels could no more." 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 77 



CHAPTER XL 

Is it a Proper Function of Keason to inquire into the Proba- 
bilities of a Future Life? 

The question, forming the heading of the 
present chapter, Is it a proper function of reason 
to inquire into the probability of a future life, I, 
of course, unhesitatingly answer in the affirma- 
tive ; for there cannot exist any mode or kind of 
thought within the capacity of human reason, 
which does not constitute a legitimate subject of 
reflection or inquiry, as will be evident when we 
consider, that if God gives us a power, he will 
also — as a necessary concomitant, give us the 
means to use it: the mere bestowal of it, already 
implies attainment as its end. No subject, there- 
fore, which reason can contemplate, apprehend, 
or subject to logical method, is too sacred or too 
exalted for its inquiries ; and the more assidu- 
ously we use it to enlarge the sphere either of 
our knowledge or of our usefulness, the more we 

shall honor it and be blessed by it. 

7* 



78 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

The idea, which tacitly underlies the preceding 
paragraph, is, that the subject of the immortality 
of the soul — involving an existence in an un- 
known and unknowable world, altogether tran- 
scends human comprehension, and should, conse- 
quently, be carefully excluded among the themes 
of our inquiries. The subject, indeed, vastly sur- 
passes our powers of comprehension, but not our 
powers of apprehension : we can think of it, reflect 
upon it, reason about it, and compare the evi- 
dence for and against it, though our arguments 
in behoof of a correct decision of it, will neces- 
sarily lack the exactness and certainty of demon- 
stration. If the child — it may be remarked, was 
not allowed to use its reason on incomprehensi- 
ble subjects, it would always, of course, remain 
a child, and its precious talent reason would thus 
be not only wasted through negligence or over- 
sight, but the adorable Giver of it, treated with 
marked insult and ingratitude. 

It is a great pity that reason is so seldom or so 
shyly employed within the sphere of the impor- 
tant religious elements of human life. I can 
hardly see how it could be put to better or more 
honorable use. As is the case now, there is, in- 
deed, religion enough in the world, but much of 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 79 

it is, alas, of a very inferior and base quality, be- 
cause it lacks the comeliness and efficiency, which 
reason only can confer upon it. Since the intro- 
duction of Christianity into the world — a period 
embracing nearly two thousand years, a great 
part of mankind might have grown much wiser 
and much better, as well as worshiped God more 
worthily and more usefully, if it had exercised 
its reason more and its fancy less. Instead, 
however, of pursuing so sensible and profitable 
a course of conduct in so eminently weighty a 
matter, Christians have been too generally con- 
tent with a bastard creed instead of a genuine 
faith, thus careless or unconscious of their highest 
interests, they at length find themselves where 
they have long lain in pitiful and contemptible 
supineness — at the feet of an often incompetent 
or unfaithful hierarchy. Such is one of the sad 
consequences of the sinful neglect or the wicked 
calumniation of this greatest of the gifts of God 
to man — reason ! 

The following thoughts of Byron re-echo 
while they give eclat to the foregoing : 

" 'Tis a base 
Abandonment of reason to resign 
Our right of thought." — Chllde Harold. 



80 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

Any efforts which reason may put forth on 
the subject of a future life, being deemed futile, 
the defect : it is supposed, may be remedied only 
by resorting to a direct Divine, or supernatural 
revelation, which alone can satisfy our inquiries, 
or solve our doubts about a future life. To 
which, it may be replied, that if such is the case, 
the Jews must have had very little inquisitive- 
ness about a hereafter, or this momentous sub- 
ject was most strangely and unaccountably over- 
looked when the revelation of the Pentateuch 
was made to them, for the books, comprised 
under that title, give not the slightest informa- 
tion about a future life ; and it is, accordingly, a 
fact, patent to every reader of that significant 
portion of the Old-Testament scriptures, that all 
the rewards and punishments, mentioned in the 
judicial code of the " Chosen People/' are — 
without a single exception, confined to the pres- 
ent life : a life to come, instead of being made 
the subject of a special miraculous communica- 
tion, is there totally ignored ! 

In the Gospel, the doctrine of a future life, is 
everywhere clearly taught; indirectly inferred; 
or tacitly premised, and the remarkable reticence 
on the subject, observed in the Pentateuch, can 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 81 

— by no means, be charged against it, yet what 
is very singular is, that the doctrine on this im- 
portant subject, entertained among the heathens, 
is substantially the same — as every one, familiar 
with the history of the peoples bearing that col- 
lective appellation, will readily perceive, though 
they make no pretensions — at least not, it may 
be presumed on orthodoxly sound principles, to 
a supernatural or miraculous revelation ! A fact, 
well worthy to be a little more closely investi- 
gated, which I shall, accordingly, endeavor to do 
in the next paragraph. 

That the heathen nations generally, unless 
they are still struggling on the low T er plains of 
human development, believe emphatically in a 
life to come, is proof that the idea of a future 
life, is the natural outgrowth of the human 
mind, and is necessary both to satisfy an in- 
stinctive want of the soul, as well as to supple- 
ment the hiatuses, or defects and imperfections, 
incident to the administration of the present life. 
"What is, moreover, of very great weight here 
and, therefore, commends itself prominently to 
our serious attention, is the fact that the hea- 
thens, who are thus animated with the glorious 
hope of a future life, and, consequently, com- 



82 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

forted and cheered, not only amid the crosses 
and hardships of life, but in the dark, ominous 
hour of death, are the children of God as well 
as we; that God is their no less than our father; 
and that — delightful thought ! in him, they too, 
accordingly, "live, and move, and have their 
being," being as much his offspring as any other 
members of the human family. Governed by 
reflections similar to these, and evidently irri- 
tated at the conceit of the Jews, that they alone 
were pre-eminently God's people, St. Paul justly 
indignant at their ridiculous pride and unsocial, 
bigoted temper, exclaims : " Is he not also the 
God of the gentiles ?" and, answering his own 
interrogation, stoutly replies : " yes, of the gen- 
tiles also." 

From salient facts and arguments, like the 
foregoing, I infer that it is about time that 
Christian zealots should cease their base slan- 
ders of the heathens, as if they were so many 
wretched outcasts, forsaken by God, and, there- 
fore, justly abhorrent to man! Let me venture 
the remark, reader, that the heathens — notwith- 
standing the disparagement of their character in 
the Jewish scriptures, have always been in a 
course of Divine training, and that we are not 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES, 83 

the only people who take lessons at God's foot- 
stool; that — though the heathens sin and do 
amiss : as is inevitable in human progress, and 
as we all can testify from experience ; yet they 
are heirs of a life to come as well as we : belief 
being the guarantee. God, who has made such 
faith possible among them; who has educated 
them to it, will — I doubt not, see that they will 
realize it under brighter prospects and happier 
auspices than the present life, however elysian it 
may be, now and then, can afford ! 



84 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Belief in Ghosts or Apparitions heing Universal, seems 
to warrant the Inference of a Future Life. 

The belief in ghosts or apparitions, clearly 
implies the belief in the immortality of the soul, 
and that the soul, being thus indestructible, or 
continuing to exist as a hypostasis, can make 
itself visible as well as otherwise perceptible to 
the living. The ghost is called a spook, if it 
habitually frequents certain places, which — in 
ghost-nomenclature, are then said to be haunted. 
A marked peculiarity in ghost-character, is the 
circumstance that apparitions take place only in 
the night, or in the deep gloom unvisited and 
unwarmed by the solar rays. Whether this 
striking fact is owing to the extreme trans- 
parency of the substance or idola, in which they 
are clothed, or to a shyness too sensitive to face 
the light, I am — of course, unable to state. This 
point may however be laid down as quite certain, 
that the communication which the spirits of the 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 85 

departed keep up with this world, has a reserved, 
even a clandestine air, and scrupulously shuns 
publicity : the ways and doings of a ghost are, 
therefore, decidedly mysterious, and it will be 
long before a Lange or a Henry, for example, 
will have discovered a canon in exegesis, that 
will fully unravel and satisfactorily explain all 
the strange idiosjaicrasies of these subtile, aerial 
denizens ! 

The localities especially sacred or best adapted 
to the haunts of the ghosts, are dilapidated old 
buildings ; lonely woods — the habitats of owls, 
screeching or hooting in dismal notes ; profound 
abysses — dimly visible, or ominously re-echo- 
ing; the forbidding sights of capital punish- 
ment; the dread scenes where murder has been 
committed ; the spot where stolen treasures are 
hidden, and the guilt} 7 ghost must hover till res- 
titution has been made ; and — in an eminent de- 
gree, the sacred realm consecrated to the repose 
of the dead : the grave-yard. This is the choice 
haunt of all the earth where ghosts dwell most 
numerously, or display their presence most fre- 
quently. It is here, among the moss-grown 
tomb-stones, or, screened amid the rank, obtru- 
sive weeds and bushes, that they delight to 



86 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

roam, now passing like a flash through space, 
then slowly and in measured step, seemingly 
scanning the faded epitaphs inscribed to the 
memories of the dead: always clad in white 
shroud-like drapery, the sight of which fills the 
credulous beholder with a shudder, and warns 
him not to venture too near the charmed and 
mystic ground. 

Ghosts have other and less ominous missions, 
which claim a concise notice in this place : they 
give tokens, for instance, by their presence and 
manner, to the living — particularly to their rela- 
tives, acquaintances, &c, intended to apprise 
them of the time, appointed for their dissolu- 
tion, or to warn them of some impending calam- 
ity. Thus the grief-stricken survivors often see 
their departed dear ones, looking pleasantly — if 
they are happy, sadly, of course, if they are un- 
happy. The mother — dressed neatly: as was 
her wont in the flesh, her gray hair still visible, 
and betokening age, comes at mid-night, stands 
for a moment at the bed-side of her child, points 
upwards, and vanishes ; the baby too, sweet and 
pretty as ever, once in awhile returns, and the 
bereft mother knows that her darling still lives ! 
Sometimes also, an unfeeling daughter or a 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 87 

brutal son: with awakening conscience, sees the 
upbraiding countenance of a neglected or ill- 
treated father, sadly, sternly, scowling rebuke. 
Tiding is likewise brought, implying how de- 
lightful a place heaven is, and the idea is, conse- 
quently, intended to be excited, intently to long 
and diligently to strive after it, &c. 

After mature deliberation on the subject in 
question, it seems that the belief in ghosts, as 
objects of human vision ; as visitors among mor- 
tals ; as messengers of good or ill to their sur- 
viving friends, &c, is nothing but a delusion, 
and an outgrowth of a vulgar or a diseased mind. 
Philosophers — unless their minds should happen 
to be morbidly affected, are decided unbelievers 
in the visible presence or actions of ghosts. On 
the other hand, ghosts are the natural and neces- 
sary offspring of vulgar minds, which are noto- 
riously always prone to superstition, and, there- 
fore, the facile victims of idle fancies, and sickly 
hallucinations. Besides, it is not easy to per- 
ceive or realize why the souls of the dead should 
thus be allowed or constrained to roam over the 
earth, and, at best, accomplish so little good, 
w 7 hile they often fill the minds of the living only 
with serious alarm, or distract them with fell dis- 



88 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

may. It cannot be, I conceive, that the soul, 
destined to survive the dissolution of its mortal 
tenement, should be continued to exist in a state 
at once so trivial, base, and insignificant. The 
great being, bearing the august name God, can- 
not — because it would be in flat contradiction to 
his known wisdom and goodness, ordain so dire 
and seemingly unreasonable a fate for the future 
state of the soul ! 

However visionary and absurd the ghost-faith 
is, its wide and general prevalence among man- 
kind, irrespective of race or creed, is proof that 
the thinking substance in us — the soul, is believed 
to be immortal ; for a dead soul cannot haunt ; 
cannot give presentiments; or assume the human 
form and manifest consciousness. Whoever, 
therefore, is certain that he sees or has seen a 
ghost, is also so far certain that the soul lives 
after death, and that — of course, he too is immor- 
tal. Thus a false belief — not false as far — we 
hope, as the immortality of the soul is postulated, 
but false as far as it is based on presumed ghost- 
phenomena, has proved a welcome and season- 
able means of consolation to the sick ; the 
troubled; the dying, &c. Because the soul, ac- 
cording to this dogma, appearing under the 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 89 

guise and in the manner of a ghost, it cannot 
fail to elicit faith in our existence hereafter, 
which, again, can result only in a serene and 
happy state of mind. 

In his "Letters on Demonology and Witch- 
craft," &c, Sir Walter Scott writes: " The gen- 
eral, or, it may be termed, the universal belief 
of the inhabitants of the earth, in the existence 
of spirits separated from the encumbrance and 
incapacities of the body, is grounded on the 
consciousness of the divinity that speaks in our 
bosom, and demonstrates to all men, except the 
few who are hardened to the celestial voice,* 
that there is within us a portion of the divine 
substance, which is not subject to the law of 
death and dissolution, but which, when the 
body is no longer fit for its abode, shall seek 
its own place, as a sentinel dismissed from his 
post. — The conviction that such an indestructi- 
ble essence exists, the belief expressed by the 
poet in a different sense, Non omnis moriar, must 
infer the existence of many millions of spirits, 
who have not been annihilated, though they 

* I doubt not there may be honest doubters, who are not 
"hardened to the celestial voice." — G. 

8* 



90 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

have become invisible to mortals, who still see, 
hear, and perceive only by means of the imper- 
fect organs of humanity. — The abstract idea of a 
spirit certainly implies, that it has neither sub- 
stance, form, shape, voice, or anything which 
can render its presence visible or sensible to 
human faculties. But the sceptic doubts of phi- 
losophers on the possibility of the appearance of 
such separated spirits, do not arise till a certain 
degree of information has dawned upon a coun- 
try, and even then only reach a very small pro- 
portion of reflecting and better-informed mem- 
bers of society. To the multitude, the indubitable 
fact, that so many millions of spirits exist around 
and even among us, seems sufficient to support 
the belief that they are, in certain instances at 
least, by some means or other, able to communi- 
cate with the world of humanity. The more nu- 
merous part of mankind cannot form in their 
mind the idea of the spirit of the deceased exist- 
ing, without possessing or having the power to 
assume the appearance, which their acquaint- 
ance bore during his life, and do not push their 
researches beyond this point," &c. 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 91 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

The Immortality of the Soul, as taught among the Heathens. 



PARAGRAPH I. 

The Immortality of the Soul, as taught in the Brahminism of the 

Hindoos. 

The Brahminical religious system of the Hin- 
doos, resolves itself briefly into the following 
readily intelligible propositions : There is one 
only Supreme Being, who — in the unrevealed ma- 
jesty of his godhead, is denominated Parabrahma, 
Brehm, Paratma, &c. In the course of self-con- 
templation, Parabrahma created the w r orld, and 
thus first manifested himself as Brahma Birnia, 
or the creator; next, he appeared in the char- 
acter of Siva or Mahadeva, the destroyer of the 
world; and, lastly, he claims recognition under 
the two-fold title of restorer and preserver of all 
things. Notwithstanding the assumption of the 
tritheistic form, Parabrahma is ever one in abso- 



92 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

lute unity, though in his cosmic evolutions he 
appears under innumerable parts, which may be 
properly considered, therefore, as merely illus- 
trating the shekinah or glory of his august pres- 
ence. For his essence is irrepresentable as it is 
ineffable. He is the everlasting and only really 
self-existing entity. The universe is his symbol, 
and is simply expressive of his name. Em- 
bracing everything within himself — as the un- 
conditional reality, he is subject neither to the 
influence of time nor space, but is emphatically 
unchangeable — the soul of the world; the soul 
of every individual entity. At length, the destiny 
of creation being finally consummated, it will 
be reabsorbed into the pleroma or fullness of Para- 
brahma ! 

In further illustration of this interesting but 
somewhat abstruse subject, I shall avail myself 
of a couple of extracts from Professor Draper's 
" Intellectual Development of Europe." Both 
the Institutes of Menu — a code of civil and re- 
ligious laws, written about the ninth century be- 
fore Christ, and the Vedas,* " Are" — writes this 

* The technical of those ancient Sanscrit books, on which 
is based the religious belief of the Hindoos, in the earlier 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 93 

distinguished author, " pantheistic, for both re- 
gard the universe as the manifestation of the 
Creator; both accept the doctrine of Emana- 
tion, teaching that the universe lasts only for a 
definite period of time, and then, the Divine en- 
ergy being withdrawn, absorption of everything, 
even of the created gods, takes place, and thus, 
in great cycles of prodigious duration, many 
such successive emanations and absorptions of 
universes occur." 

With especial reference to the position, which 
the soul occupies in the pantheistic creed, the 
Professor again thus remarks : " As to the rela- 
tion between the Supreme Being and man, the 
soul is a portion or particle of that all-pervading 
principle, the Universal Intellect or Soul of the 
World, detached for awhile from its primitive 
source, and placed in connection to the bodily 
frame, but destined by an inevitable necessity 
sooner or later to be restored and rejoined — as 
inevitably as that rivers run back to be lost 
in the ocean from which they arose. " That 
Spirit," says Yarunato his son, " from which, all 



stages of their religious development. The Rigveda, 1 may 
add, is considered the oldest literary production in the world. 



94 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

created beings proceed, in which, having pro- 
ceeded, they live, toward which they tend, and 
in which they are at last absorbed, that Spirit 
study to know : it is the Great One." " 

It is evident from the foregoing arguments, 
that the believer in pantheism, must be likewise 
a believer in the immortality of his soul ; for — 
under the circumstances, such a belief is abso- 
lutely a foregone conclusion : the part— considered 
as an emanation, is inherent in the whole ; and 
the fraction is an integrant of the unit. Hence, 
if God is everlasting, the soul too is illimitable 
in its duration. Is it not at once, in fact, god of 
God, and god in God? Thus we see, Brahmin- 
ism to be synonymous with pantheism, and pan- 
theism with the great, paramount dogma of the 
immortality of the soul ! 

PARAGRAPH II. 

The Belief in the Immortality of the Soul among the Ancient Per- 
sians. 

Among other dogmas, embraced under the 
phrase eschatology ', the ancient Persians taught 
that after death, the soul will exist temporarily 
in an intermediate state, appropriated to its con- 
dition, according as it is good or bad. 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 95 

As soon as a person has died, the Dews — it is 
affirmed, hasten to seize the departed soul, and 
in this sinister attempt, they readily succeed, if 
its character is bad, but if, on the contrary, it 
has a reputation for justice and purity, the Izeds 
benignly interpose their presence, and rescue the 
intended victim from their fiendish grasp. 

The soul — after the temporary suspension of 
its ultimate destiny, now arrives at the great 
bridge Tschinevad, the boundary line between 
the present and the future world. Here awaits 
it the dread judge of all men and all deeds — 
Ormuzd, the god of light and goodness, accom- 
panied by Bahman, and, in compliance with his 
decision, the good soul is carried by the holy 
Izeds, across the bridge into the Land of Bliss, 
where it lives in anticipation of a happy resur- 
rection. The bad souls — on the contrary, are 
not suffered to pass the bridge, but are doomed 
to go to a place which is more in accord with 
their evil conduct. 

At last when the time — allowed by Zeruane 
Akerene, the Supreme Being, for the termina- 
tion of the arduous contest with Ahriman, or 
Satan : the mischievous author of all evil in the 
world, has expired, the resurrection begins, and 



96 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

both the good and the bad will equally partici- 
pate in it : all the dead having been re-collected 
for that solemn purpose. Every one will arise 
in the order in which he had entered upon the 
present scene of life. After that, the good and 
the bad will occupy separate abodes, suited to 
their moral w T orth or demerit, and, consequently, 
psychical condition. Ahriman will now be cast 
into an abyss of darkness, where — in liquid fire, 
he will undergo a process of expurgation from 
evil. Not only shall man be renewed both in 
body and in soul, but all creation shall share in 
the ultimate renovation. Before this happy con- 
summation, therefore, the earth will so pro- 
foundly sympathize with the approaching catas- 
trophe, as to seem smitten with a most dire 
disease; hills and mountains will dissolve in 
living streams of fire, through which the souls of 
mortals must pass, to be thoroughly purified and 
cleansed from all blemishes and base desires, and 
thus fitted for the final enjoyment of everlasting 
life ! 

All nature is now restored to its pristine 
vigor and beauty; hell is no more; Ahriman's 
kingdom is destroyed, and Ormuzd alone reigns 
and disseminates blessings everywhere. At 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 97 

last, Ormuzd with his seven Amshaspands, 
and Ahriman with his seven Dews, bring a 
joint-sacrifice to Zeruane Akerene,* or the Su- 
preme Being, and the grand and awful drama 
is closed ! 

Very valuable information, respecting the be- 
lief in the immortality of the soul among the 
ancient Persians, is communicated by a contrib- 
utor to Chambers's Encyclopaedia, to a part of it, 
especially pertinent to the present scope of the 
question, the reader's attention is respectfully 
invited. Treating of a life to come, he con- 
tinues : " The belief in immortality, was one of 
the principal dogmas of Zoroaster,f and it is 
held by many that it was through Persian influ- 
ence that it became a Jewish and a Christian 
dogma. Heaven is called the ' House of Hymns,' 
a place where angels praise God incessantly in 
song. It is also called the ' Best Life,' or Para- 

* The meaning of Zeruane Akerene — the Supreme Being 
of the Persians, means time without bounds, that is the Eter- 
nal. 

f Zoroaster — the prophet, was the restorer and reformer of 

the Magian sect. According to some, he lived about 550 

years before Christ, while others assign a considerably earlier 

date as the period of his activity. — G. 

9 



98 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

dise. ' Hell' is called the House of Destruction. 
It is the abode chiefly of the priests of the bad 
— deva, religion. The modern Persians call the 
former Behesht; the latter, Duzak. Between 
heaven and hell, there is the bridge of the gath- 
erer or Judge, over which the soul of the pious 
passes unharmed, while the wicked is precipi- 
tated from it into hell. The resurrection of the 
body is clearly and emphatically indicated in the 
Zend-Avesta; and it belongs, in all probability, 
to Zoroaster's original doctrine — not, as has been 
held by some, to later times, when it was im- 
parted into his religion by other religions. A 
detailed description of the resurrection and last 
judgment is contained in the Bundehesh. The 
same argument — the almightiness of the Creator, 
which is now employed to show the possibility 
of the elements, dissolved and scattered as they 
may be, being all brought back again, and made 
once more to form the body to which they once 
belonged, is made use of there to prove the 
Resurrection. There is still an important ele- 
ment to be noticed — the Messiah, or Sosiosh, 
from whom the Jewish and Christian notions of 
a Messiah are held, by many, to have been de- 
rived. He is to awaken the dead bodies, to re- 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 99 

store all life destroyed by death, and to liold the 
last judgment," &c. 

PARAGRAPH III. 

The Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul, as taught among the 
Ancient Egyptians. 

In this paragraph, I shall attempt to give a 
concise statement of the belief of the ancient 
Egyptians in the immortality of the soul, as far 
as it can be gathered from their practice of em- 
balming the dead, and the dogma of the trans- 
migration of the soul : facts, which leave not a 
shadow of doubt upon the impartial mind, that 
the primeval dwellers in the valley of the Mle, 
were firm believers in a hereafter. 

The Embalming of the Dead* — As soon as an 
Egyptian was dead, a member of his family or a 
friend, gave information of the event to the 
priest, whose duty it was to officiate on the occa- 
sion. Accompanied by those whose profession — 
as well as his own, required them to act an im- 
portant part in the solemn funereal rite, he pro- 
ceeded to an edifice, especially appropriated for 

* The example given above, pertains to a mummy of one 
of the higher classes of citizens. 



100 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

such a purpose, and presented three models or 
paradigms of mummies — of various excellence 
and different prices, to the embalmers, who se- 
lected one, which best comported with the rank 
and means of the deceased. As soon as this was 
done, the priest, on whom devolved the impor- 
tant office of dissecting the body, hastened to 
begin his task, but as soon as he had made the 
first incision, he fled precipitately, pursued by 
the relatives of the dead person simulating anger 
and threatening to stone him, on account of the 
outrage, which they pretended that he had com- 
mitted : signifying that the deceased's body was 
the work of God, and that he was, therefore, os- 
tensibly guilty of the crime of sacrilege. 

Dissection having been completed ; the viscera 
— carefully incased, committed to the waters of 
the Mle ; and the body laid in alkaline solutions, 
one of the embalmers — always a priest, facing the 
sun, thus offered up a prayer in the name of the 
dead: "0 thou ruler, Helios, and all the gods, 
who have given life to man, receive me into your 
celestial abode ; for while I sojourned upon the 
earth, I have always honored the gods, the be- 
nign authors of my existence, and never embez- 
zled another's goods," &c. 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 101 

After the expiration of seventy days, the body 
of the deceased was taken out of its alkaline 
bath, and having been embalmed with proper 
care and skill; accurately as well as neatly 
swathed; and laid in a richly decorated coffin 
of sycamore-wood, the mummy was finally placed 
in an upright position against the wall, in one of 
the necropolies, or cities of the dead, where — con- 
secrated to the Supreme Being, it awaited the 
opening of the great cosmic year !* 

The transmigration of the Soul — According to 
Herodotus, the Egyptians were the first among 
mankind, who have taught the immortality of 
the soul. " They believe," he writes : in the lan- 
guage of Beloe, one of his numerous transla- 
tors, " that on the dissolution of the body, the 
soul immediately enters some other animal, and 
that after using as vehicles every species of ter- 
restrial, aquatic, and winged creature, it finally 
enters a second time into a human body. They 

* " The art of embalming," writes a contributor to Cham- 
bers's Encyclopaedia, C( seems to have derived its origin from 
the idea, that the preservation of the body was necessary for 
the return of the soul to the human form, after it had com- 
pleted its cycle of existence of three or ten thousand years," 

&c. 

9* 



J02 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

affirm that it undergoes all these changes in the 
space of three thousand years," &c. 

Creuzer in his " Symbolikund Mythologie der 
Alten Volker," &c, expresses the opinion — which 
seems exceedingly plausible, that the doctrine of 
the transmigration of the soul, is the vulgar form 
of the belief in the immortality of the soul ; that 
the priests and educated part of the Egyptians, 
taught a purer and more rational kind of immor- 
tality, independent of any connection with the 
present frail and corruptible body; while the 
common people — generally extremely rude and 
ignorant, could not think of the soul as a hypos- 
tasis, except in conjunction with a body. Hence 
the origin of mummyism or the practice of em- 
balming the dead, that the soul might still con- 
tinue to inhabit its pristine abode. 

However long the artistically and carefully 
prepared mummy-habitation might serve the 
soul as a home after death, it must eventually 
decay and be dissolved into its constituent ele- 
ments, when transmigration into other bodies, 
was inevitable. At this stage, however, of this 
remarkable creed, a source of hope and joy sud- 
denly opened before the hapless wanderer — in 
the blessed institution of Amenities — a region in 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 103 

the nether world, synonymous with Hades, and 
devoted to repentance and amelioration. Dying, 
the soul descended into the realm of the mild 
and gracious Osiris, through whose wise and 
assiduous teaching, it was purified and exalted. 
From this very agreeable turn, which the subject 
has assumed — in this brief investigation, it ap- 
pears that the soul, united with its earthly tene- 
ment, is capable to live in Amenthes, and be 
comparatively happy there, if it will only im- 
plicitly conform to the parental authority of 
Osiris, the Good God ! 

The following brief exposition of the subject, 
by a writer in the Encyclopaedia already men- 
tioned, in another part of this Paper, being at 
once elucidative as well as corroborative of the . 
preceding remarks, will appropriately conclude 
the present disquisition : " The Egyptians," he 
says, " believed in the transmigration of souls, 
and all not sufficiently pure to be admitted into 
the courts of the sun, or whose bodies had per- 
ished before the expiration of 3000 3-ears,* passed 
from body to body, having first descended to 

* The period during which the mummy or embalmed body 
was supposed to last. — G. 



104 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

Hades, and passed through the appointed trials 
and regions, endeavoring to reach the manifesta- 
tion of the abode of light, " &c. 

PARAGRAPH IV. 
The Belief of the Ancient Greeks in the Immortality of the Soul. 

Retributive justice among the ancient Greeks. 
— Rewards and punishments were universally 
taught by the poets and believed by the people 
of ancient Greece. There was, hence, a king- 
dom of Pluto — located in Hades, or the lower 
regions, where justice was administered without 
respect of person to the departed souls, in strict 
accordance with the desert of each : Hence, the 
bad w T ere banished to Tartarus, while the good 
were received into Elysium. "The Fates will 
tell you," writes Tooke, in his " Pantheon of 
the Heathen Gods, and Illustrious Heroes," 
" that Pluto presides over life and death; that 
he not only governs the departed spirits below, 
but also can lengthen or shorten the lives of 
men on earth, as he thinks fit." 

Pythagoras. — Pythagoras — who flourished in 
the sixth century before the Christian era, was 
the celebrated founder of the Italic School of Phi- 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 105 

losophy. Among other mysterious lore, which he 
was taught by the Egyptian priests, when he tem- 
porarily sojourned among them on a visit to their 
country, was the famous doctrine of the metemp- 
sychosis or transmigration of the soul, which a 
numerous and zealous disciple-ship afterwards 
widely disseminated among the Hellenic and 
Latin races of peoples. — " There is no doubt," 
says an English writer, " that Pythagoras main- 
tained the doctrine of the transmigration of souls 
into the bodies of men and other animals : which 
seems to have been regarded in the Pythagorean 
system as a process of purification, and he is said 
to have asserted that he had a distinct recollec- 
tion of having himself previously passed through 
other stages of existence," &c. 

Plato, the " Divine Philosopher." — Plato be- 
lieved in a former existence of the human race, 
and asserted that sometimes he was keenly sen- 
sible — like Pythagoras, of reminiscent glimpses 
of the past. In the Work, entitled Phcedrus, he 
gives his views on the momentous subject of the 
soul's immortality. Referring to them, in his 
" Lectures on the History of Ancient Philoso- 
phy," Butler writes : " Plato here argues, that 
the soul — as self-moving, is a Principle of mo- 



106 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

tion; that a principle cannot be produced any 
more than it can be destroyed. Not produced, for 
it would then no longer be a principle, no longer 
the self-dependent source of its own energy; not 
destroyed, for if so the whole existence of things, 
which rests on first principles of production, 
might cease. " If then," he concludes, " all 
which is the source of its own motion, is soul, 
assuredly the soul can have neither commence- 
ment nor termination." " — I will only add, that 
in Timceus, this distinguished Greek sage teaches 
that both the souls of mankind and those of the 
lower animals, are of the same nature with the 
universal soul, and, consequently, alike immortal ! 
The Dionysus-mysteries teach the immortality of 
the soul. — According to the psychological views, 
taught in the profound mysteries sacred to this 
divinity, the human soul is originally an in- 
mate of heaven, or the celestial world, but has 
forsaken this happy abode, in its lust for indi- 
vidual or separate existence. Owing to this un- 
hallowed propensity, it drank from the cup of 
Liber Pater, or Bacchus, thus becoming intoxi- 
cated with sensuous desire, when material love 
rapidly developed itself, and the memory of its 
high descent, grew gradually more and more 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 107 

faint. Being now in a marked degree oblivious 
of the past, it longs to be born in the flesh. 
Such is generally the case in this process of 
mental deterioration. The better or more con- 
siderate class of souls, however, fleeing the temp- 
tation to such extreme degradation, steadfastly 
keep in mind the blissful habitation which they 
have left, that they may more effectually shun 
the pernicious influences of this world. These 
souls, being thus wisely upon their guard, drink 
only so much from the fatal cup of oblivion — 
le'the, as — under the circumstances, is unavoid- 
able. The consequence is, they still sympathize 
with better natures and strive after a nobler des- 
tiny. Hence too it happens, that as soon as they 
arrive here, they attach themselves closely to the 
genius or daimon, that is assigned to each of 
them, to guide them back again to pristine bliss 
and glory. On the contrary, the more sensu- 
ous souls drink more copiously of the noxious 
draught; become constantly more oblivious of 
their first estate ; and — finally, preferring evil to 
good, they thenceforth, alas, pay little attention 
to their divine monitors ! 

The belief in immortality is inculcated in the Elcu- 
sinian Mysteries. — " Several months," writes Gil- 



108 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

lies, in his interesting and valuable " History of 
Ancient Greece," &c, " had passed in these 
preparations,* when the Eleusinian festival ap- 
proached ; a time destined to commemorate and 
to diffuse the temporal and spiritual gifts of the 
goddess Ceres, originally bestowed on the Athe- 
nians, and by them communicated to the rest of 
Greece. Corn, wine, and oil, were the principal 
productions of Attica ; each of which had been 
introduced into that country through the propi- 
tious intervention of a divinity, whose name was 
distinguished by appropriate honors. Minerva, 
who had given not only the olive, but what was 
regarded as far more valuable, her peculiar pro- 
tection to the city of Athens, was rewarded with 
innumerable solemnities. Various also were the 
professions of gratitude expressed, in stated days 
of the spring and autumn, to the generous author 
of the vine. The festival of Ceres returned, in- 
deed, less frequently; but was, partly on that ac- 
count, the more solemn and awful ; and partly, 
because distinguished by the Eleusinian myste- 
ries, those hidden treasures of wisdom and hap- 



* The military and naval arrangements for the prosecution 
of a new campaign. — G. 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 109 

piness, which were poured out on the initiated 
in the temple of Eleusis. 

Fourteen centuries before the Christian era, 
the goddess, it is said, communicated those in- 
valuable rites to Eumolpus and Keryx, two vir- 
tuous men, who had received her in the form 
of an unknown traveler with pious hospitality. 
Their descendants, the Eumolpidse and Keryces, 
continued the ministers and guardians of this 
memorable institution, which was finally abol- 
ished by the great Theodosius,* after it had 
lasted eighteen hundred years. The candidates 
for initiation were prepared by watching, absti- 
nence, sacrifice, and prayer; and before reveal- 
ing to them the divine secrets, the most awful 
silence was enjoined them. Yet enough tran- 
spired among the profane vulgar to enable us 
still to collect, from impartial and authentic tes- 
timony, that the mysteries of Ceres expressed 
by significant emblems, the immortality of the 
human soul, and the rewards prepared in a 
future life, for the virtuous servants of heaven. 
The secrecy enjoined by her ministers, so un- 



* The cause of the abolition of the Eleusinian mysteries, 
was simply a contemptible piece of bigotry. — G. 

10 



HO THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

worthy the truth which they taught, might jus- 
tify the indifference of Socrates, whose doctrines, 
not less divine, were inculcated with unreserved 
freedom. But the fate of Socrates may justify, 
in its turn, the circumspection of the hierophants 
of Ceres." 

PARAGRAPH V. 

The Immortality of the Soul, as it was taught in the Obsequies of the 

Ancient Romans. 

In treating the present question, Kennett — the 
learned author of "Romse Antiquse Notitia; or 
the Antiquities of Rome," will be the sole au- 
thority; and though brief: parts only — deemed 
most suitable, being culled from the text, his in- 
formation will be fully adequate to the proper 
understanding and just appreciation of the im- 
portant subject. 

The funeral ceremonies — of the ancient Ro- 
mans, may be divided into such as were used to 
persons when they were dying, and to such as 
were afterwards performed to the dead corpse. 

"When all hopes of life were now given over, 
and the soul being apparently just ready to take 
its flight, the friends and nearest relations of the 
dying party were wont to kiss him, and embrace 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. m 

his body till he expired. Thus Suetonius relates 
that Augustus expired in the kisses of Livia. 
Nor needs there be any further proof of a cus- 
tom, with which everybody is acquainted. The 
reason of it is not so well known : most probably 
they thought by this pious act, to receive into 
their own bodies the soul of their departing 
friend. For the ancients believed that the soul, 
when it was about leaving the body, made use 
of the mouth for its passage ; whence animam in 
primo ore, or in primis labris tenere, is to be at 
death's door. And they might well imagine the 
soul was thus transfused in the last act of life, 
who could fancy that it was communicated in an 
ordinary kiss, as we find they did from the love- 
verses, recited by Macrobius. 

The custom of closing the eyes of a departing 
friend, common both to Romans and Grecians, 
is known by any one that has but looked into a 
classic author. Pliny tells us that, as they closed 
the eyes of the dying persons, so they likewise 
opened them again when the body was laid on 
the funeral pile : and his reason for both customs 
is, " ut neque ab homine supremum spectari fas 
sit, et ccelo non ostendi nefas"; because they 
counted it equally impious that the eyes should 



112 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

be seen by men at their last moment, or that 
they should not be exposed to the view of heaven. 

After the funeral, we are to take notice of the 
several rites performed in honor of the dead, at 
the festivals instituted with that design. The 
chief time of paying these offices was the Feralia, 
or the feast of the ghosts, in the month of Feb- 
ruary ; but it was customary for particular fami- 
lies to have proper seasons of discharging this 
duty, as the Novennalia, the Decemialia, and the 
like. The ceremonies themselves may be re- 
duced to these three heads — sacrifices, feasts, and 
games ; to which, if we subjoin the customs of 
mourning, and of the consecration, we shall take 
in all that remains on this subject. 

The sacrifices — which they called Inferice,* 
consisted of liquors, victims, and garlands. The 
liquors were water, wine, milk, blood, and liquid 
balsam. The blood was taken from the victims 
offered to the Manes, which were usually of the 
smaller cattle, though in ancient times it was 
customary to use captives or slaves in this in- 
human manner. Beside the balsams and gar- 
lands used on these sad occasions, they also were 

* Sacrifices or offerings in honor of the dead. — G-. 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. H3 

in the habit of strewing loose flowers about the 
monuments of the dear departed ones. 

The feasts celebrated to the honor of the de- 
ceased, were either private or public. The pri- 
vate feasts were termed Silicernia, from silex, and 
ccena, as if we should say — suppers made on a 
stone. These were prepared both for the dead 
and the living. The repast designed for the 
dead, consisting commonly of beans, lettuces, 
bread, and eggs, or the like, was laid on the 
tomb for the ghosts to come out and eat, as they 
fancied they would; and what was left they 
burned on the stone.* 

The private feasts for the living were kept at 
the tomb of the deceased, by the nearest friends 
and relations only. As to the public feasts, they 
took place when the heirs or friends of some rich 
or great person obliged the people with a gen- 
eral treat to his honor and memory; as Cicero 
reports of the funeral of Scipio Africanus, and 
Dio of that of Sylla. Suetonius also relates that 
Julius Caesar gave the people a feast in memory 
of his daughter. Such marked demonstration 
of affection and veneration for the dead, is sufli- 



* The tombstone.— G. 
10* 



114 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

cient proof — I may remark, that conscious per- 
sonal existence was ascribed to them ! 

The last ceremony, designed to be spoken of, 
was consecration. This belonged properly to the 
emperors; yet we meet too with a private conse- 
cration, which we may observe in our way. This 
was, when the friends and relations of the de- 
ceased canonized him, and paid him worship in 
private : a species of respect commonly paid to 
parents by their children, as Plutarch observes 
in his " Roman Questions" ; yet the parents too 
sometimes conferred the same honor on their 
deceased children, as Cicero promises to do for 
his daughter Tullia, at the end of his " Consola- 
tion" ; and though that piece — as we now have 
it, is suspected of not being genuine; yet the 
present authority loses nothing of its force, being 
cited heretofore by Lactantius, according to the 
copies extant in his time. 

PARAGRAPH VI. 

The Ancient Scandinavians too believed in the Immortality of the 

Soul. 

In presenting this somewhat novel and striking 
phase of the great doctrine in a life hereafter, I 
shall do little more than perform the servile task 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. H5 

of a copyist, simply aiming — as such, in the main 
carefully to follow in the path so clearly marked 
out by M. Mallet, in his eminently interesting 
and instructive "Work, recognized and admired 
under the title " Northern Antiquities/' &c. 

Here too, on bleak, gelid Scandinavian soil, 
and in the hearts of the Scandinavian people, we 
find again the consoling and sublime dogma of 
the immortality of the soul, to have flourished 
while it illustrated the temper and directed the 
hopes of the sturdy and belligerent worshipers 
of Odin. It was a doctrine naturally growing 
out of the pious and profound conviction of those 
northern Teutons — ever thirsting for fame and 
victory, that there is a divinity within us : an 
imperishable principle, that is destined to sur- 
vive the dissolution of the body, and to be happy 
or miserable, according to our fidelity to duty, 
and uprightness of conduct, here below. All the 
Teutonic nations held essentially the same ex- 
alted opinions, and it was upon these that they 
founded the twin obligation of serving the gods, 
and of being valiant in battle. 

Scandinavian mythology expressly distinguishes 
two different abodes for the happy, and as many 
for the culpable ; which is what several authors 



116 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

who have written of the ancient religions of 
Europe, have not sufficiently attended to. The 
first of these abodes was the palace of Odin, 
named Valhalla, where that god received all such 
as died in a violent manner, from the beginning 
to the end of the world, that is, to the time of 
that universal desolation of nature, which was to 
be followed by a new creation, and what they 
called Eagnarok, or the twilight of the gods. 
The second, which — after the renovation of all 
things, was to be their eternal abode, was named 
Gimli, that is, the palace covered with gold, 
where the just were to enjoy delights for ever. 

It was the same as to the place of punish- 
ments ; they distinguished two of those, of which 
the first, named Niflheim, was only to continue 
to the renovation of the world, and the second 
that succeeded it was to endure for ever. This 
last was named isTastrond, the shore of the dead ; 
and we have seen in the description of the end 
of the world, what idea was entertained of it by 
the ancient Scandinavians. 

With regard to the two first places, the Val- 
halla and Mflheim, they are not only distin- 
guished from the others in being only to. endure 
till the conflagration of the world, but also in 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. H7 

respect to rewards and punishments. Those 
only whose blood had been shed in battle, might 
aspire to the pleasures which Odin prepared for 
them in Valhalla. The pleasures which they ex- 
pected after death, show us plainly enough what 
they relished during life. " The heroes," says 
the Edda, " who are received into the palace of 
Odin, have every day the pleasure of arming 
themselves, of passing in review, of ranging 
themselves in order of battle, and of cutting one 
another in pieces; but as soon as the hour of 
repast approaches, they return on horseback all 
safe and sound back to the hall of Odin, and fall 
to eating and drinking. Though the number of 
them cannot be counted, the flesh of the boar 
Saehrimnir is sufficient for them all. Every day 
it is served up at table, and every day it is re- 
newed again entire : their beverage is ale and 
mead ; one single goat, whose milk is excellent 
mead, furnishes enough of that liquor to intoxi- 
cate all the heroes. Odin alone drinks wine for 
his entire liquor. A crowd of virgins wait upon 
the heroes at table, and fill their cups as fast as 
they empty them." Such was that happy state, 
the bare hope of which rendered all the inhabit- 
ants of the north of Europe intrepid, and which 



118 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

made them not only to defy, but even seek with 
ardor, the most cruel deaths ! 

I shall bring this brief inquiry to a close, by 
calling the reader's attention to the following 
pertinent and decidedly elating stanza, taken 
from Young's celebrated " Night Thoughts" : 

" ? Tis immortality — 'tis that alone 

Amid life's pains, abasements, emptiness, 
The soul can comfort, elevate, and fill ; 
That only, and that amply this performs." 

PARAGRAPH VII. 

The Belief in the Immortality of the Soul, among the Indians or 
Aborigines of America. 

Though ignorant, compared with the English 
colonists among them, the Indians were both 
smart and ingenious, " Nor," writes Grimshaw 
in his " History of the United States," &c, 
" were they destitute of religion. Unaided by 
the blessings of revelation, they had, by the 
mere dictates of natural reason, received a sys- 
tem, which was, in a great measure, adequate to 
the prevention of injustice. They believed, that 
there were many gods ; who were of various de- 
grees, and possessed peculiar attributes : but that 
there was one God above the whole, by whom 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. H9 

the others, and the universe, were made ; that 
the soul was immortal; and that there was, in a 
future state, a place of reward for the virtuous, 
and punishment for the wicked," &c. 

" There are two fundamental doctrines," says 
Doctor Robertson, in his elegant and charming 
" History of America," " upon which the whole 
system of religion, as far it can be discovered by 
the light of nature, is established. The one re- 
spects the being of a God, the other the immor- 
tality of the soul. To discover the ideas of the 
uncultivated nations under our review with re- 
gard to those important points, is not only an 
object of curiosity, but may afford instruction," 
&c. 

"With respect to the great doctrine concerning 
the immortality of the soul, this distinguished 
writer thus expatiates : " The human mind, even 
when least improved and invigorated by cul- 
ture, shrinks from the thoughts of annihilation, 
and looks forward with hope and expectation to 
a state of future existence. This sentiment, re- 
sulting from a secret consciousness of its own 
dignity, and forming an instinctive longing after 
immortality, is universal, and may be deemed 
natural. Upon it are founded the most exalted 



120 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

hopes of man in Ms highest state of improve- 
ment; nor has nature withheld from him this 
soothing consolation, in the most early and rude 
period of his progress. 

We can trace this opinion from one extremity 
of America to the other : in some regions more 
faint and obscure, in others more perfectly de- 
veloped, but nowhere unknown. The most un- 
civilized of its savage tribes do not apprehend 
death as the extinction of being. All entertain 
hopes of a future and more happy state, where 
they shall be for ever exempt from the calami- 
ties which embitter human life in its present 
condition. This future state they conceived to 
be a delightful country, blessed with perpetual 
spring, whose forests abound with game, whose 
rivers swarm with fish, where famine is never 
felt, and uninterrupted plenty shall be enjoyed 
without labor or toil. But as men, in forming 
their first imperfect ideas concerning the invisi- 
ble world, suppose that there they shall continue 
to feel the same desires, and to be engaged in 
the same occupations, as in the present world, 
they naturally ascribe eminence and distinction, 
in that state, to the same qualities and talents 
which are here the object of their esteem. The 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 121 

Americans, accordingly, allotted the highest 
place, in their country of spirits, to the skillful 
hunter, the adventurous and successful warrior, 
and to such as had tortured the greatest number 
of captives, and devoured their flesh. 

These notions were so prevalent, that they 
gave rise to a universal custom, which is, at 
once, the strongest evidence that the Americans 
believe in a future state, and the best illustration 
of what they expect there. As they imagine that 
departed spirits begin their career anew in the 
world whither they are gone, that their friends 
may not enter upon it defenceless and unpro- 
vided, they bury together with the bodies of the 
dead their bows, their arrows, and other weapons 
used in hunting or war; they deposit in their 
tombs the skins or stuffs of which they make 
garments, Indian corn, manioc, venison, domes- 
tic utensils, and whatever is reckoned among the 
necessaries in their simple mode of life. 

In some provinces, upon the decease of a 

cazique or chief, a certain number of his wives, 

of his favorites, and of his slaves, were put to 

death, and interred together with him, that he 

might appear with the same dignity in his future 

station, and be waited upon by the same attend- 

11 



122 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

ants. This persuasion is so deep-rooted, that 
many of the deceased person's retainers offer 
themselves as voluntary victims, and court the 
privilege of accompanying their departed mas- 
ter, as a high distinction. It has been found dif- 
ficult, on some occasions, to set bounds to this 
enthusiasm of affection and duty, and to reduce 
the train of a favorite leader to such a number as 
the tribe could afford to spare."* 

While — in his "Indian Traits," &c, Thatcher 
mainly accords in his information with that to 
which we have just listened on the subject of 
Indian ideas of the soul's immortality, he im- 
parts to it very interesting additional light, and 
will, therefore, appropriately find a place in these 
researches: "A belief in the immortality of the 
soul," he says, "is common to all the tribes, 
while they differ much in their opinions as to its 
situation after death. Some suppose it to remain 
for a time in this world, invisible, but capable of 
seeing and hearing its old acquaintances, and 
even of assisting them in moments of distress. 



* At the death of Huana-Capac, the most powerful of the 
Peruvian monarchs, above a thousand victims were doomed to 
accompany him to the tomb. — G. 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 123 

But sooner or later it must travel a long journey 
to the far-off land of spirits — in the South-west. 
This requires several months to perform, and is 
attended with numerous difficulties, such as cross- 
ing rapid streams upon a single log, and meeting 
with ferocious dogs or wild beasts. Meanwhile, 
the spirit, being supposed still to feel the appe- 
tites belonging to it during life, must be sup- 
plied with proper conveniences for traveling and 
subsistence, at least until it has had time to ac- 
quire different habits. Hence, food, weapons 
for hunting, a pipe, a tinder-box and flint, and 
other similar articles, are placed in the grave 
alongside of the corpse. 

The Indians all believe, also, in a future state 
of rewards and punishments, although they dif- 
fer respecting the mode, and also in regard to 
what general character and course of conduct 
will either condemn a man on the one hand, or 
entitle him to the favor of the Great Spirit on 
the other. 

To be a good hunter and a great warrior, and 
especially to have killed a great number of the 
enemy in war, are esteemed strong recommenda- 
tions to future happiness. The virtues of hospi- 
tality, of charity, of fortitude, are also consid- 



124 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 

ered; and in fine, whatever, according to their 
notions, goes to make up a meritorious charac- 
ter. Even the beasts will have their part of para- 
dise ; for the Indian believes that the whole race 
of animals will survive the present life, and that 
he will have not only an abundance of excellent 
game, of every description, but hunting-grounds 
and fishing-privileges in the future world. Thus 
the hunter will be able to enjoy himself con- 
stantly in his favorite amusement, while an eter- 
nal spring will freshen the pathway under his 
feet with flowers, and fill the woods around him 
with melody and verdure. 

Those who are punished, it is believed, are 
only punished for a time, and then admitted 
into the company of the good.* Some tribes 
suppose the punishment to consist in one thing, 
and some in another. Perhaps, for example, in 
crossing a stream upon a log, the bad spirit will 
slip off, and be condemned to remain in the 
water up to his chin, within sight of the happi- 
ness of the good, but without the power of par- 
taking of it. 

Some of those tribes living furthest North, 



* What a contrast with a Calvinist's hell ! — G-. 



ON PURELY LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 125 

imagine this place of punishment to be a cold 
and desolate country, without game, where there 
is but a bare possibility of sustaining life in the 
midst of perpetual snows. Such, for instance, 
is the belief of the Mandans, as represented by 
an accurate observer— Catlin, the distinguished 
artist, who has spent considerable time among 
them during the last season." 

To the foregoing graphic and faithful delinea- 
tions of a creed, strikingly characteristic of an 
interesting and once numerous race of people,* 
I add the following naive and pathetic effusion 
from Pope's immortal production — the " Essay 
on Man," equally, yet concisely, portraying the 
profound yearning of the soul after a life to come : 

" Lo ! the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind 
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind ; 
His soul proud science never taught to stray 
Far as the solar walk, or milky way ; 
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n, 
Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n, 
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd, 
Some happier island in the wat'ry waste, 
Where slaves once more their native land behold, 
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold ! 



* Perhaps it would be more proper to say races of peoples. 



126 THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY. 

To be, contents his natural desire. 
He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire ; 
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, 
His faithful dog shall bear him company." 

Though, much might still be said in favor of 
the important subject, to which the preceding 
disquisition has been devoted; yet enough evi- 
dence — I think, has been adduced, to satisfy any 
intelligent and impartial mind, that the belief in 
a life to come is universal among mankind, and, 
hence, plainly a gift of God : this being a fact, it 
must, undoubtedly, be the will of God, that we 
should assiduously and unfalteringly cherish faith 
in a future life, and that, consequently, it is his 
will also that we should not be the victims of a 
terrible delusion, but the absolutely predestined 
heirs of a blessing, the craving after which, he 
has deeply and ineradicably impressed in the 
souls of his children ! 



THE END. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




